Customer Reviews

On the Nature of Things

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On the Nature of Things is the unabridged audiobook adaptation of the only surviving work of the Roman philosopher Lucretius, born in 99 BC. In "On the Nature of Things", Lucretius sought to liberate his fellow Romans from their fear of the gods, and their fear of death. Lucretius argued that the gods are not directly involved in life, and therefore there is no need to appease them; he also argued that death is the end of a human being's body and soul, and therefore there is no point in fearing it. An unforgettable amalgamation of insight, now in a new English translation by Ian Johnston and intuitively performed by theater, film, and television actor Hugh Ross, On the Nature of Things deserves the highest recommendation especially for public and college library collections.

Excellent, clarified translation makes for enjoyable reading, easily absorbed almost as a fiction novel. Read this after reading "The Swerve" and other excellent books from Amazon on Roman history.

I wondered if I would find this 2000 year old poem relevant to my 21st century life. It is. On The Nature of Things is almost a reference book of everyday subjects from pain, harmony, love, touch, taste and free will. It also goes on the broader subjects such as life, rain, atoms, religion, earth and the universe. The outline of the poem gives you a broad idea of what Lucretius is talking about, and the index lets you quickly find his thoughts on any given subject. I find that I pick up the book when I'm thinking about something, and I wonder what Lucretius has to say about it. I would suggest this book to any independant thinker.

Stephen Greenblatt's extraordinary book "The Swerve" no doubt made readers curious about Lucretius and his poem. I bought this translation without being diligent. It is rife with archaic English verb forms. It was easy to find out William Ellery Leonard's translation dates from early twentieth century. I had expected a free verse translation in modern English. Translation is not recommended.

Imagine my surprise when I tried to sit down with this book last night on my Kindle, only to find out it was 67 lines long and consists of - well, I'm not exactly sure. It looks like an incomplete index.

Needless to say, if you're looking for a complete version of On the Nature of Things for the Kindle, this is not the one for you.

This book is easy to comprehend and very interesting. I recommend this book for leisure reading also.

This kindle book was free but there was no book. Second page turn jumps to 60% complete and then ends about 10 pages later. Nothing but a table of contents and a bunch of chapter headers with no content at all.

This Kindle version of On the Nature of Things is very incomplete. Amazon, you need to either correct this, or remove it.

I downloaded this book only to discover that the entire book is table of contents. WTF!!! Amazon, get your act together!

About Englert and the translation:

Author

Walter Englert is the Omar and Althea Hoskins Professor of Classical Studies at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He earned his PhD at Stanford University, and has published on aspects of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Roman Philosophy.

Preface

This translation is an attempt to render Lucretius' powerful Latin philosophic poem into an English translation that reflects the philosophic clarity and poetic power of the original. I have tried to model my translation of Lucretius' epic poem on English translations of classical and medieval poems that I greatly admire, Richmond Lattimore's translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and Allen Mandelbaum's translations of Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy. I have always been struck by the way Lattimore renders the beauty and clarity of Homer while remaining so faithful to the text, and by how Mandelbaum translates Virgil and Dante with such poetic force, accuracy, and humanitas. When I began this project I was convinced that what was needed for Lucretius was an English translation which would bring out the inseparable poetic qualities and philosophic clarity of the poem, and which could be used by students and general readers as an accurate guide to the original.

My interest in Lucretius first began when I read Lucretius as an undergraduate in the Integral Liberal Arts program at St. Mary's College of California. The seminars I had on Lucretius gave me my first glimpses of the poem's power and beauty. I first read Lucretius in Latin as a graduate student with Jo-Ann Shelton at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and I learned a great deal about reading Lucretius from her. I owe a special debt to Michael Wigodsky of Stanford University, who taught a Lucretius seminar I took and was the advisor of my Stanford Dissertation, Aristotle and Epicurus on Voluntary Action, (1981), which I later reworked into a monograph, Epicurus on the Swerve and Voluntary Action, American Classical Studies 16, Atlanta, GA, 1987. Both projects involved close scrutiny of numerous passages in Lucretius (one of our chief sources of Epicurus' thought), and made me want to continue to work on the enigmatic Roman poet who put Epicurus' Greek philosophic prose into strikingly beautiful Latin verse.

In the years I worked on this translation I received help from many quarters. I want to express thanks to Reed College, which provided the sabbaticals and summer grants needed to complete the work. Thanks are also owed to my colleagues in the Reed Classics Department, Richard Tron and Nigel Nicholson, as well as colleagues and students in the Humanities 110 course at Reed who read earlier drafts of Book 1 and provided helpful feedback. I also received help from a number of Reed students who read and commented on portions of the text, including Robin Adler, Josephine Martell, Dan Harris, and Andrew Hoke. Finally, my greatest thanks go to my wife Mary and daughters Francesca and Molly. They have offered unfailing support while I worked on Lucretius, and I dedicate the translation to them with love.