James S. Romm - translator has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 8 ratings. The most-rated is How to Keep Your Cool.
How to Keep Your Cool
Summary
In his essay On Anger (De Ira), the Roman Stoic thinker Seneca (c. 4 BC-AD 65) argues that anger is the most destructive passion: "No plague has cost the human race more dear." This was proved by his own life, which he barely preserved under one wrathful emperor, Caligula, and lost under a second, Nero. This splendid new translation of essential selections from On Anger, presented with an enlightening introduction, offers listeners a timeless guide to avoiding and managing anger. Drawing on his great arsenal of rhetoric, including historical examples (especially from Caligula's horrific reign), anecdotes, quips, and soaring flights of eloquence, Seneca builds his case against anger with mounting intensity. Like a fire-and-brimstone preacher, he paints a grim picture of the moral perils to which anger exposes us, tracing nearly all the world's evils to this one toxic source. But he then uplifts us with a beatific vision of the alternate path, a path of forgiveness and compassion that resonates with Christian and Buddhist ethics. Seneca's thoughts on anger have never been more relevant than today, when uncivil discourse has increasingly infected public debate. Whether seeking personal growth or political renewal, listeners will find, in Seneca's wisdom, a valuable antidote to the ills of an angry age.
©2019 Princeton University Press (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
How to Give: An Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving
Summary
Timeless wisdom on generosity and gratitude from the great Stoic philosopher Seneca To give and receive well may be the most human thing you can do-but it is also the closest you can come to divinity. So argues the great Roman Stoic thinker Seneca in his longest and most searching moral treatise, "On Benefits" (De Beneficiis). James Romm's splendid new translation of essential selections from this work conveys the heart of Seneca's argument that generosity and gratitude are among the most important of all virtues. For Seneca, the impulse to give to others lies at the very foundation of society; without it, we are helpless creatures, worse than wild beasts. But generosity did not arise randomly or by chance. Seneca sees it as part of our desire to emulate the gods, whose creation of the earth and heavens stands as the greatest gift of all. Seneca's soaring prose captures his wonder at that gift, and expresses a profound sense of gratitude that will inspire today's audiences. Complete with an enlightening introduction, How to Give is a timeless guide to the profound significance of true generosity.
©2020 Princeton University Press (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books