![Stoicism Collection: Meditations, On the Shortness of Life, and Enchiridion](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548408786l/43701838._SX98_.jpg)
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Recognizing that these are reconstructed classics, there really isn’t much to critique outside of organization/structure and delivery … with the primary compliant being the rather useless chapter designations. Next would be production quality … for which there are occasions of skips, repeats and other errors that should have been caught with a good editorial process. The work opens with an Introduction (Chapter 2) to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (Chapter 3-14) and a comparison of Stoicism and Christianity … (specifically Meditations vs Imitation of Christ) … using Ye Fancy Olde English Thees and Thous (which comes across as an irritating affectation) although is probably a factor of the translation used (Project Gutenberg 17th century). Still, it was a good summary of the basics of Stoic Philosophy. Each book barely has any topical organization, being more a collection of personal musings (think personal diary). Next up is the essay on the Shortness of Life by Seneca … with each chapter representing a very short paragraph (why can’t these all be in one chapter). The most interesting to me was the “Handbook” … a collection of maxims and precepts in 52/3 chapters spread across 4 sections.
Chapter 01-15: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (12 Books about 25 mins ea)
Chapter 16-37: On the Shortness of Life by Seneca (20 Chapters)
Chapter 38-90: Enchiridion [Handbook] by Epictetus (53 Chapters)
- Chapters 39/1–59/21. What is up to us and not, and how to deal with external things
1–2. What is up to us and not, and the consequences of choosing either.3–14. How to deal with external things (reining the reader in from them)15–21. How to use external things correctly and without disturbance.
- Chapters 60/22–66/28. Advice for intermediate students.
- Chapter 67/29 Discourse on Training
- Chapters 68/30–85/47. Technical advice for the discovery of appropriate actions (kathēkonta).
30–33. Appropriate actions towards (a) other people, (b) God, (c) divination, (d) one's own self.34–47. Miscellaneous precepts on justice (right actions).
- Chapters 86/48–90/52. Conclusions on the practice of precepts.
48. Final advice and his division of types of people.49–52. The practice of precepts.
I was given this free advance listener copy (ALC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#StoicismCollection #AudibookFree
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