Classic Audiobook Collection

The Greek View of Life by Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson audiobook. Genre: philosophy In The Greek View of Life, classicist Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson offers a lucid, wide-ranging portrait of how the ancient Greeks understood the world and their place within it. Rather than a chronicle of battles and rulers, this book asks a deeper question: what kind of life did Greek culture imagine was worth living? Dickinson guides listeners through the Greeks' attitudes toward nature and the divine, the demands of the city-state, the meaning of freedom and citizenship, and the competing claims of pleasure, duty, and self-control. Along the way, he draws on Greek literature, philosophy, and art to reveal a civilization that prized clarity of thought, balance, and measure, yet never ignored the shadow of suffering and limitation. Written with an eye for comparison, the book invites modern readers to test their own assumptions against a society that helped shape Western ideas of reason, beauty, politics, and education. The result is both an introduction to Greek ideals and a reflective meditation on what culture can teach us about character, community, and the art of living. Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:04:33) Chapter 02 (00:20:15) Chapter 03 (00:24:26) Chapter 04 (00:32:59) Chapter 05 (00:47:59) Chapter 06 (00:55:44) Chapter 07 (01:02:49) Chapter 08 (01:10:41) Chapter 09 (01:20:07) Chapter 10 (01:33:08) Chapter 11 (01:52:45) Chapter 12 (02:06:07) Chapter 13 (02:19:19) Chapter 14 (02:28:04) Chapter 15 (02:43:07) Chapter 16 (02:52:57) Chapter 17 (03:03:25) Chapter 18 (03:07:51) Chapter 19 (03:17:17) Chapter 20 (03:22:41) Chapter 21 (03:38:50) Chapter 22 (03:47:14) Chapter 23 (03:51:51) Chapter 24 (04:05:43) Chapter 25 (04:28:23) Chapter 26 (04:49:51) Chapter 27 (05:27:35) Chapter 28 (05:42:16) Chapter 29 (05:52:35) Chapter 30 (05:57:53) Chapter 31 (06:04:11) Chapter 32 (06:08:48) Chapter 33 (06:17:04) Chapter 34 (06:38:54) Chapter 35 (06:45:20) Chapter 36 (07:12:07) Chapter 37 (07:39:12) Chapter 38 (07:47:38) Chapter 39 (08:01:45) Chapter 40 (08:16:57) Chapter 41 (08:33:47) Chapter 42 (08:42:42) Chapter 43 (08:51:57) Chapter 44 (09:03:32) Chapter 45 (09:16:16) Chapter 46 (09:36:15) Chapter 47 (09:45:42) Chapter 48 (10:03:54) Chapter 49 (10:27:26) Chapter 50 (10:33:47) Chapter 51 (10:36:49) Chapter 52 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Criminal man - according to the classification of Cesare Lombroso by Gina Lombroso audiobook. Genre: science In this influential work of early criminology, Gina Lombroso presents and organizes Cesare Lombroso's provocative attempt to explain crime through classification. Drawing on medical observation, anthropology, and statistics, the book argues that criminal behavior is not a single phenomenon but a spectrum of distinct types, from the so-called born criminal and the habitual offender to the criminal by passion and the mentally ill delinquent. Lombroso's method is concrete and case-driven: he compares bodies, faces, and habits; catalogs physical and psychological 'stigmata'; and links crime to heredity, epilepsy, insanity, alcoholism, and social environment. Along the way, the reader is taken into courtrooms, prisons, and asylums through examples meant to show how different offenders think, act, and relapse. Whether approached as a serious scientific proposal, a historical artifact, or a cautionary tale about bias in measurement, the book raises enduring questions about free will, responsibility, and prevention: if crime has causes that can be studied, can society replace pure punishment with diagnosis, treatment, and reform? Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:13:59) Chapter 01 (01:18:13) Chapter 02 (01:47:12) Chapter 03 (02:21:30) Chapter 04 (02:50:42) Chapter 05 (03:30:07) Chapter 06 (03:58:12) Chapter 07 (04:52:47) Chapter 08 (05:39:23) Chapter 09 (06:07:57) Chapter 10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White audiobook. Genre: history In The Natural History of Selborne, parson-naturalist Gilbert White invites listeners into the quiet English village he called home, and turns everyday observations into an extraordinary portrait of the living world. Written as a series of letters to fellow scholars and friends, the book follows White through the fields, hedgerows, ponds, and churchyard of Selborne as he watches swallows arrive and depart, notes the habits of owls and mice, records the songs of birds, and studies the shifting seasons with patient curiosity. White is not chasing exotic specimens or grand theories so much as trying to understand how animals, plants, weather, and human life fit together in one small place. Along the way, his careful attention challenges easy assumptions, highlights the value of repeated observation, and shows how wonder can be grounded in detail. Part scientific record, part rural chronicle, and part meditation on nature's rhythms, this classic work offers a vivid sense of place and a gentle, inquisitive voice that helped shape modern field naturalism. Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:17:58) Chapter 02 (00:53:52) Chapter 03 (01:35:19) Chapter 04 (02:17:49) Chapter 05 (02:55:05) Chapter 06 (03:44:09) Chapter 07 (04:15:07) Chapter 08 (04:59:37) Chapter 09 (05:40:32) Chapter 10 (06:23:03) Chapter 11 (07:07:17) Chapter 12 (07:53:34) Chapter 13 (08:34:44) Chapter 14 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bel Ami, or The History of a Scoundrel by Guy de Maupassant audiobook. Genre: drama In late 19th-century Paris, Georges Duroy is a broke former soldier with a sharp smile, a quick appetite, and no intention of staying poor. When a chance encounter brings him into the orbit of a major newspaper, Georges discovers a world where fortunes rise on politics, scandal, and the right signature at the bottom of an article. Lacking education but rich in nerve, he learns to turn charm into currency, trading on introductions, favors, and the intimate confidences of those who know how the city truly works. As he reinvents himself as 'Bel Ami,' his ambitions accelerate, and so do the consequences. Every salon invitation and newsroom whisper becomes a step on a ladder he is willing to climb at any cost, while the women who guide him, challenge him, or underestimate him each reveal a different face of power in a society obsessed with appearance. Guy de Maupassant's classic novel is a razor-edged portrait of greed, desire, and social performance, where success is measured not by virtue, but by audacity. Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:28:00) Chapter 02 (00:53:21) Chapter 03 (01:13:24) Chapter 04 (01:30:42) Chapter 05 (01:47:01) Chapter 06 (02:03:08) Chapter 07 (02:17:38) Chapter 08 (02:33:43) Chapter 09 (02:55:06) Chapter 10 (03:20:41) Chapter 11 (03:57:16) Chapter 12 (04:15:04) Chapter 13 (04:34:29) Chapter 14 (04:48:41) Chapter 15 (05:03:33) Chapter 16 (05:20:27) Chapter 17 (05:42:04) Chapter 18 (06:04:19) Chapter 19 (06:17:51) Chapter 20 (06:41:25) Chapter 21 (06:59:31) Chapter 22 (07:17:21) Chapter 23 (07:35:52) Chapter 24 (07:55:32) Chapter 25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ghosts of Piccadilly by George Slythe Street audiobook. Genre: history In The Ghosts of Piccadilly, British critic and satirist G. S. Street turns one of London's most famous thoroughfares into a after-hours promenade through memory. The 'ghosts' here are not supernatural apparitions, but the lingering presence of the men and women who once lived, argued, flirted, schemed, and celebrated behind Piccadilly's townhouse facades and club doors - along with the vanished buildings that shaped the street's character. Street guides the listener from address to address, pausing at quiet doorways to spin anecdotes drawn from letters, gossip, and biographical fragments. His tour is deliberately personal rather than encyclopedic: he follows his own tastes, lingering on figures who amuse or move him, and gliding past others with dry wit. Along the way, Piccadilly becomes a miniature history of fashionable London, where reputations are made in drawing rooms, fortunes are wagered, and public lives leave private traces. By blending social history with sharply observed commentary, Street invites you to see a familiar street as a crowded stage, and to listen for the echoes still embedded in its stones. Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:24:03) Chapter 02 (00:53:36) Chapter 03 (01:14:22) Chapter 04 (01:35:26) Chapter 05 (01:54:34) Chapter 06 (02:15:39) Chapter 07 (02:38:28) Chapter 08 (02:56:52) Chapter 09 (03:17:26) Chapter 10 (03:40:47) Chapter 11 (03:59:42) Chapter 12 (04:15:54) Chapter 13 (04:36:21) Chapter 14 (04:57:32) Chapter 15 (05:17:58) Chapter 16 (05:37:00) Chapter 17 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices