Of the Shortness of Life
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Read by Jonathan Hockey
Seneca the Younger wrote the moral essay "De Brevitate Vitae" — "On the Shortness of Life" — to his friend Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that men waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives man enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly. (1 hr 4 min)
Chapters
| Chapters 1 to 5 | 13:00 | Read by Jonathan Hockey |
| Chapters 6 to 10 | 16:25 | Read by Jonathan Hockey |
| Chapters 11 to 15 | 19:36 | Read by Jonathan Hockey |
| Chapters 16 to 20 | 15:15 | Read by Jonathan Hockey |
Reviews
Unlistenable, unfortunately.
A LibriVox Listener
The reader is very quiet and runs on too quickly, so its hard to understand what he is saying. the recording quality is awful, so you cannot turn the volume up enough to hear it without the hissing and popping of consonants driving you insane. unlistenable.
to the reader...
I tried
what? Speak up! I'm sorry I could've even finish this due to the speaker I was looking forward to this read too. but thanks for volunteering..
An essential book (that deserves a second version)
P.B.
"If such men wish to know how short their lives are, let them think how small of a fraction of them is their own." This sums up most of this opus by Seneca. The Stoic philosopher argues that the brevity we see in our existence is but a reflection of time poorly spent. Anachronically, this could culminate in utilitarianism, but it's a powerful statement nonetheless. Jonathan Hockey's reading, much like in the first section of Seneca's "Of Peace of Mind", is very muffled and poorly recorded, with a lot of heavy breathing, plosive sounds and some words being a bit indiscernible. His effort and dedication are praiseworthy, but his delivery could be slower in a few passages and at times his pronunciation was kind of hard for me to understand.
seneca on the shortness of life..
Timothy Jackson
What a shame one of the greatest books of all time butchered by this reader. Bless him for donating his precious time. Although I feel a book that has lasted since? 345 ad deserves better. Truly disappointing.. Im sorry I try not to complain, but this one needs a great reader! I have the book.
Could not listen to this reader...
N
I was looking forward to listening to this book. However I was unable to get through even the second chapter due the the reader and the poor quality of the recording. Please do another recording of this book.
A LibriVox Listener
Rate the quality of the recording, meh, it's not studio quality. But more importantly to rate the content, this is something everyone should read, as well as mull in a bit to absorb the deeper human truths.
Beautiful, but diminished by the read
Abenakus
Seneca's words are above the words of man. This one is no exception. The only issue is the read. The readers voice and accent is great, but... He reads too fast, too quiet, he's too close to the mic. The audio has not been adjusted in any way at all and very raw with low end equipment being used or used improperly. It's nice to put on in the background as a story to fall asleep to, but not something that's really understood or enjoyed. It's a shame.
WPennocks
Fantastic book! It’s amazing to see how social phenomena like “hustle culture”, trivia, and memorabilia collectors are nothing new. The insights on the value of time should be shared with every person who wants to use their life in such a way that the time allotted is long enough. I saw in the forum that the reader did make efforts to improve the sound quality, but it still came in too quiet, with a bit of static. Additionally, the enunciation on some consonants was a little indistinct. The reader’s efforts are appreciated.