The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, credited to Marcus Aurelius, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Marcus Aurelius. (Translated by George Chrystal.) Read in English by realisticspeakers; George Allen; Gemma L Myers; Kuba Orłowski; yonesantana; AlextheYounger; DrPGould; pyfeman43; Linda Johnson The Meditations is divided into 12 books that chronicle different periods of Marcus' life. Each book is not in chronological order and it was written for no one but himself. The style of writing that permeates the text is one that is simplified, straightforward, and perhaps reflecting Marcus' Stoic perspective on the text. Depending on the English translation, Marcus' style is not viewed as anything regal or belonging to royalty, but rather a man among other men which allows the reader to relate to his wisdom. A central theme to Meditations is the importance of analyzing one's judgment of self and others and the development of a cosmic perspective. As he said "You have the power to strip away many superfluous troubles located wholly in your judgment, and to possess a large room for yourself embracing in thought the whole cosmos, to consider everlasting time, to think of the rapid change in the parts of each thing, of how short it is from birth until dissolution, and how the void before birth and that after dissolution are equally infinite".[3] He advocates finding one's place in the universe and sees that everything came from nature, and so everything shall return to it in due time. Another strong theme is of maintaining focus and to be without distraction all the while maintaining strong ethical principles such as "Being a good man".[4] His Stoic ideas often involve avoiding indulgence in sensory affections, a skill which will free a man from the pains and pleasures of the material world. He claims that the only way a man can be harmed by others is to allow his reaction to overpower him. An order or logos permeates existence. Rationality and clear-mindedness allow one to live in harmony with the logos. This allows one to rise above faulty perceptions of "good" and "bad". - Summary by Wikipedia

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
• Author credits: Marcus Aurelius
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 12
• Listed recording duration: 4:47:46

Track guide

1. 01 - Book I — 22:36
2. 02 - Book II — 13:25
3. 03 - Book III — 16:21
4. 04 - Book IV — 34:25
5. 05 - Book V — 30:59
6. 06 - Book VI — 28:17
7. 07 - Book VII — 25:05
8. 08 - Book VIII — 25:58
9. 09 - Book IX — 23:49
10. 10 - Book X — 23:40
11. 11 - Book XI — 20:07
12. 12 - Book XII — 23:04

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.