Non-Fiction

Meditations

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 11 mins)
• By Marcus Aurelius
• Narrated By Duncan Steen
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

One of the most significant books ever written by a head of State, the Meditations are a collection of philosophical thoughts by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180 ce). Covering issues such as duty, forgiveness, brotherhood, strength in adversity and the best way to approach life and death, the Meditations have inspired thinkers, poets and politicians since their first publication more than 500 years ago. Today, the book stands as one of the great guides and companions - a cornerstone of Western thought.

As a Man Thinketh

• UNABRIDGED (56 mins)
• By James Allen
• Narrated By Brian Holsopple
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This audiobook version of As A Man Thinketh is true to the original. Every word written by James Allen is spoken with clarity and authority by the narrator, making it easy to remember the information and absorb the timeless wisdom. This short audiobook, originally published in 1902, has had a huge impact in the field of personal development. It is regarded as one of the most important books of the new thought era. It's written in such a way that makes it easy to understand the most powerful message you could ever learn.

Autobiography of a Yogi

• UNABRIDGED (17 hrs and 36 mins)
• By Paramahansa Yogananda
• Narrated By Ben Kingsley

When Autobiography of a Yogi first appeared in 1946, it was acclaimed as a landmark work in its field. The New York Times hailed it as "a rare account". Newsweek pronounced it "fascinating". The San Francisco Chronicle declared, "Yogananda presents a convincing case for yoga, and those who 'came to scoff' may remain 'to pray." Today it is still one of the most widely read and respected books ever published on the wisdom of the East.

The Prince

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 1 min)
• By Niccolò Machiavelli
• Narrated By David McCallion
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In an attempt to appeal to the Medici family during the Italian Renaissance, Machiavelli outlines the way to acquire and retain political power, and how great men should behave in a princely government. The book is divided into four parts - types of principalities and state, proper conduct of a prince as military leader, personal conduct of a prince, and the disparity of Italy's political situation. Many listeners will be able to see principals that Machiavelli advocates for are still used in many political systems today.

The Richest Man in Babylon

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 8 mins)
• By George S. Clason
• Narrated By Mike Vendetti
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Listen and be inspired by the soothing baritone of award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti as he reads George Samuel Clason's classic The Richest Man in Babylon. Unless you were born wealthy or hit the lottery, this audiobook can be your path to financial security and success. The parables set in ancient Babylon and originally published in 1926 are as applicable today as they were in ancient times.

Masters of Greek Thought: Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle

• ORIGINAL (18 hrs and 19 mins)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor Robert C. Bartlett

For more than two millennia, philosophers have grappled with life's most profound and "eternal" questions. It is easy to forget, however, that these questions about fundamental issues like justice, injustice, virtue, vice, or happiness were not always eternal. They once had to be asked for the first time. This was a step that could place the inquirer beyond the boundaries of the law. And the Athenian citizen and philosopher who took that courageous step in the 5th century B.C. was Socrates.

Think and Grow Rich

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 25 mins)
• By Napoleon Hill
• Narrated By Charles Conrad

Napoleon Hill interviewed and studied the 500 greatest wealth-makers of his time. From their examples, he uncovered the universal laws of success - principles that will work for anyone willing to put them into practice. The result, first published in 1938, was Think and Grow Rich.

Beyond Good and Evil

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 24 mins)
• By Friedrich Nietzsche
• Narrated By Alex Jennings, Roy McMillan
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Continuing where Thus Spoke Zarathustra left off, Nietzsche's controversial work Beyond Good and Evil is one of the most influential philosophical texts of the 19th century and one of the most controversial works of ideology ever written. Attacking the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalised weakness, Nietzsche criticises past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts. Nietzsche tried to formulate what he called "the philosophy of the future".

The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida

• ORIGINAL (18 hrs and 45 mins)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor Lawrence Cahoone

What is reality? Ask yourself whether you can actually know the answer, much less be sure that you can know it, and you've begun to grapple with the metaphysical and epistemological quandaries that have occupied, teased, and tormented modern philosophy's greatest intellects since the dawn of modern science and a century before the Enlightenment.

The Game of Life and How to Play It

• UNABRIDGED (2 hrs and 27 mins)
• By Florence Scovel Shinn
• Narrated By Rosemary Benson
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A key figure in the metaphysical movement known as New Thought, Florence Scovel Shinn has influenced many modern spiritual leaders, including Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Deepak Chopra, May McCarthy, and Louise Hay. Through stories of real-life situations and biblical tenets, Shinn teaches that the empowering use of positive attitude and affirmations can create a path to wealth, good health, and loving relationships. Intuition, love, and prosperity can expand through intentional thoughts and prayer.

Books that Matter: The Prince

• ORIGINAL (11 hrs and 1 min)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor William Landon

Should leaders be feared or loved? Can dictators give rise to democracy? Should rulers have morals or wear them like a mask? Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince puts forth unsettling questions like these, whose answers redefined centuries of political wisdom. But what does it really mean to be Machiavellian? These 24 lectures are more than just a close reading of one of the great books of Western history.

Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 42 mins)
• By Marcus Aurelius
• Narrated By Alan Munro
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Meditations is former U.S. President Bill Clinton's favorite book. This audio consists of a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 AD, setting forth his ideas on Stoic philosophy.

Plato's Apology

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr)
• By Plato
• Narrated By Ray Childs

Socrates is on trial for his life. He is charged with impiety and corrupting young people. He presents his own defense, explaining why he has devoted his life to challenging the most powerful and important people in the Greek world. The reason is that rich and famous politicians, priests, poets, and a host of others pretend to know what is good, true, holy, and beautiful, but when Socrates questions them, they are shown to be foolish rather than wise.

The Art of War [Blackstone Version]

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 16 mins)
• By Sun-Tzu, translation by John Minford
• Narrated By Lorna Raver, Ray Porter

For more than two thousand years, The Art of War has stood as a cornerstone of Chinese culture, a lucid epigrammatic text that reveals as much about human psychology, politics, and economics as it does about battlefield strategy. The influence of Sun-Tzu's text has grown tremendously in the West in recent years, with military leaders, politicians, and corporate executives alike finding valuable insight in these ancient words.

The Feminine Mystique

• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 40 mins)
• By Betty Friedan
• Narrated By Parker Posey

The book that changed the consciousness of a country - and the world. Landmark, groundbreaking, classic - these adjectives barely describe the earthshaking and long-lasting effects of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. This is the book that defined "the problem that has no name," that launched the Second Wave of the feminist movement, and has been awakening women and men with its insights into social relations, which still remain fresh, ever since.

Propaganda

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 42 mins)
• By Edward Bernays, Mark Crispin Miller - introduction
• Narrated By Grover Gardner
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed the "engineering of consent". During World War I, he was an integral part of the US Committee on Public Information, or CPI, a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise, and sell the war to the American people as one that would "Make the World Safe for Democracy".

Sailing Alone Around the World

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 29 mins)
• By Joshua Slocum
• Narrated By Bernard Mayes
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Challenged by an expert who said it couldn’t be done, Joshua Slocum, a fearless New England sea captain, set out in April 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. A little over three years and forty-six thousand miles later, the proof was complete. This is Slocum’s own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage of the Spray.

Democracy in America

• UNABRIDGED (34 hrs and 9 mins)
• By Alexis de Tocqueville
• Narrated By John Pruden

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and civil servant, made a nine-month journey through the eastern United States. The result was Democracy in America, a monumental study of the strengths and weaknesses of the nation’s evolving politics. His insightful work has become one of the most influential political texts ever written on America.

The Prince

• UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 30 mins)
• By Niccolò Machiavelli
• Narrated By Greg Wagland

The Prince, Machiavelli's 'little book', was written in 1513 and is dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici. It remains a compelling and controversial treatise on politics, dispensing often cynical, sometimes brutal advice on gaining power and retaining it. Essential listening for our masters perhaps, but most certainly for those of us who would not be mastered. The text used here is the unabridged and classic translation by W. K. Marriott.

Letters to a Young Poet

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 51 mins)
• By Rainer Maria Rilke, Charlie Louth - translator
• Narrated By Dan Stevens, Max Deacon

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, read by Max Deacon and Dan Stevens. At the start of the 20th century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself; these profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for writers and artists of all kinds.

Quote Collection from the World Over

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 22 mins)
• By Jeffrey Jeschke
• Narrated By Trevor Clinger

This is a compilation of the titles Sun Tzu Quotes, Native American Sayings & Quotes, Proverbs of Wisdom & Cultural Heritage and Quotes of the Ages.

Self Reliance, Nature, The Transcendentalist: Plus Bonus Content

• UNABRIDGED (26 hrs and 3 mins)
• By Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Narrated By Richard Banks, Patrick Jonathan, Greg McCarthy, and others

In this program you will receive unabridged recordings of "Self Reliance", "Nature", and "The Transcendentalist" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. You will also bonus content such as As a Man Thinketh, Morning & Evening Thoughts, From Poverty to Power, Foundation Stones to Happiness & Success, The Enchiridion, and much more.

The Enchiridion and Discourses

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 54 mins)
• By Epictetus
• Narrated By Alastair Cameron

The Enchiridion and Discourses is a compilation of Epictetus's philosophical teachings. Although Epictetus spent much of his life as a slave, he believed that all people were free to control their emotional well-being and live in harmony with their circumstance and those around them. His works are a guide for applying philosophy to day-to-day living. Although many of the great philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, promoted grand ideas, they never approached the subject of integrating those ideas into everyday life.

Symposium

• UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 14 mins)
• By Plato
• Narrated By Alastair Cameron
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In this acclaimed Plato masterpiece, you travel back in time to attend an elaborate high society dinner. At this party, you meet Plato's mentor, Socrates, and the comic poet Aristophanes. During the banquet, each of these men is invited to praise Eros, the god of love and desire. You witness them deliver speeches that embody their wisdom and philosophies on love. You hear Socrates' celebrated account of Diotima, the prophetess who taught him that love is the manifestation of human goodness. Finally, you even hear from the famous Alcibiades.

Cape Cod

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 13 mins)
• By Henry David Thoreau
• Narrated By Patrick Cullen
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Compiled from magazine articles published in the 1850s after his death, Cape Cod details several short trips Thoreau made to "the bare and bended arm of Massachusetts" between 1849 and 1855. "He went to the Cape out of curiosity," explains Paul Theroux, "but in the course of his travel a great thing happened: Thoreau, the woodsman and landlubber, discovered the sea."

What Christmas Is as We Grow Older

• UNABRIDGED (12 mins)
• By Charles Dickens
• Narrated By Michael Page
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Originally published in the 1851 Christmas edition of Dickens's journal Household Words, "What Christmas Is as We Grow Older" is an essay suggesting that Christmas should be a time of gratitude and forgiveness. This version of "What Christmas Is as We Grow Older" was recorded as part of Dreamscape's The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 17 mins)
• By Max Weber
• Narrated By Monroe Clark McBride
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Max Weber's best-known and most controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904, remains to this day powerful and fascinating. Weber's highly accessible style is just one of many reasons for his continuing popularity. The book contends that the Protestant ethic made possible and encouraged the development of capitalism in the West.

The Voyage of the Beagle

• UNABRIDGED (20 hrs and 12 mins)
• By Charles Darwin
• Narrated By David McCallion
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In 1831, the HMS Beagle took sail. Onboard was a young Charles Darwin. He would set out on an adventure that would lead him to question everything about man's place in the world. The Voyage of the Beagle is the journal Darwin kept of his observations of the extraordinary and natural wonders he encountered, from volcanoes to the coral reefs of Australia. It would be these natural wonders that would lead to him questioning how the different species of the world came to be and eventually to his radical theories.

The Art of War

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 19 mins)
• By Sun Tzu
• Narrated By Roberto Scarlato
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the 5th century BC and is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun", also spelled Sunzi). The text is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare and it is commonly thought of as a definitive work on military strategy and tactics.

Self-Reliance

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 22 mins)
• By Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Narrated By Phil Paonessa

This collection of 19th-century essays explores Emerson's thoughts about transcendentalism, individualism, and romanticism. The centerpiece of the collection, Emerson's masterpiece "Self-Reliance", explains the need for individuals to avoid conformity and false consistency so that they will be able to follow their own instincts and ideas.

The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer: The Art of Literature

• UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 51 mins)
• By Arthur Schopenhauer
• Narrated By Ron Welch
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The contents of this, as of the other volumes in the series, have been drawn from Schopenhauer's Parerga, and amongst the various subjects dealt with in that famous collection of essays, Literature holds an important place. Nor can Schopenhauer's opinions fail to be of special value when he treats of literary form and method.

The Telekinetic Theory of Levitation

• UNABRIDGED (31 mins)
• By Elliott Coues
• Narrated By Kane Prestenback
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The alleged spontaneous and even intelligent movements of various inanimate objects, under some circumstances, without the application of any known mechanical force, is a phenomenon which has never been explained to the satisfaction of scientific men. I do not think it possible to explain away the allegations of the fact on the assumption that all the persons who have testified to the evidence of their senses in this matter have been either mistaken or mendacious.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

• UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 53 mins)
• By Frederick Douglass
• Narrated By Arthur Grey
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a memoir and treatise on abolition written by Frederick Douglass in 1845. It is a highly revered narrative in which Douglass describes the events of his life and is one of the most influential pieces of literature to fuel the abolitionist movement in the United States.

The Age of Fable: Bulfinch’s Mythology, Book 1

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 2 mins)
• By Thomas Bulfinch
• Narrated By Mary Woods

Many of the world's travails may be traced to the displacement of mythology by the age of science. Knowledge today is often deemed useful only if it enlarges our possessions or raises our station in society. If instead the criterion were to make us happier and more virtuous, mythology would have retained its proper place in society. The Age of Fable is Thomas Bulfinch's brilliant reconstruction of the ancient myths and legends that form the backbone of Western culture.

Propaganda

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 42 mins)
• By Edward Bernays, Mark Crispin Miller - introduction
• Narrated By Grover Gardner
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed the "engineering of consent". During World War I, he was an integral part of the US Committee on Public Information, or CPI, a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise, and sell the war to the American people as one that would "Make the World Safe for Democracy".

Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau's Collection

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 40 mins)
• By Henry David Thoreau
• Narrated By Kevin Theis
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Enjoy these two classical pieces by transcendentalist author, Henry David Thoreau. Walden reflects upon simple living in one's natural surroundings, through Thoreau's first-hand account on living peacefully with nature. Civil Disobedience is an essay Thoreau wrote stressing that individuals should not allow governments to overrule or wither with their consciences (particularly in reference to slavery).

On Guerrilla Warfare

• UNABRIDGED (2 hrs and 13 mins)
• By Mao Zedong
• Narrated By Ron Welch
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In a war of revolutionary character, guerrilla operations are a necessary part. This is particularly true in war waged for the emancipation of a people who inhabit a vast nation. China is such a nation, a nation whose techniques are undeveloped and whose communications are poor. She finds herself confronted with a strong and victorious Japanese imperialism.

Common Sense

• UNABRIDGED (2 hrs and 43 mins)
• By Thomas Paine
• Narrated By Jennifer Mary Dixon
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1737-1809), originally published anonymously (by "an Englishman") in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776. This revised edition was published on February 14, 1776. It had a great influence at the time, particularly with regard to the colonies becoming completely independent of Great Britain as well as bringing about the issuance of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in July 1776.

De Profundis

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 41 mins)
• By Oscar Wilde
• Narrated By David McCallion
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

At its heart, De Profundis is a love letter and is better known as the De Profundis papers. Written in 1897, while Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol, De Profundis would become one of his best-known works. The papers include Wilde's account of living a lavish lifestyle and his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, both of which he credited for his eventual downfall and imprisonment. The second half of the papers is Wilde's account of prison life and his spiritual awakening.

The Critique of Pure Reason

• UNABRIDGED (22 hrs and 39 mins)
• By Immanuel Kant
• Narrated By Martin Wilson
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Published in 1797, the Critique of Pure Reason is considered to be one of the foremost philosophical works ever written. In the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant explores the foundation of human knowledge and its limits, as well as man's ability to engage in metaphysics.