Description

The book was published on May 6, 2003 by Gregory Hays. Hays is assistant professor of classics at the University of Virginia. He has published articles and reviews on various ancient writers and is currently completing a translation and critical study of the mythographer Fulgentius.Here you can find an interview with the Hays about his translation: http://www.ryanholiday.net/archives/mediations_interview_wit… Amazon Rating (111 customer reviews)Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968…One measure, perhaps, of a book’s worth, is its intergenerational pliancy: do new readers acquire it and interpret it afresh down through the ages? The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, translated and introduced by Gregory Hays, by that standard, is very worthwhile, indeed.Hays suggests that its most recent incarnation–as a self-help book–is not only valid, but may be close to the author’s intent. The book, which Hays calls, fondly, a “haphazard set of notes,” is indicative of the role of philosophy among the ancients in that it is “expected to provide a ‘design for living.'” And it does, both aphoristically (“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.”) and rhetorically (“What is it in ourselves that we should prize?”). Whether these, and other entries (“Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life.”) sound life-changing or like entries in a teenager’s diary is up to the individual reader, as it should be. Hays’s introduction, which sketches the life of Marcus Aurelius (emperor of Rome A.D. 161-180) as well as the basic tenets of stoicism, is accessible and jaunty.The eBook is a LIT file. You can open the ebook by using Microsoft Reader, which you cand download here: http://www.microsoft.com/reader/uk/downloads/pc.mspxThe audiobook wasn’t made by a professional speaker. The book is read by some guy. The Meditations was chosen PotM June 2008: . It took me some time to track down this translation (made by Gregory Hays). The version which you can find on the Internet, was made by George Long (1800 – 1879) , but it is not so easy to read like this translation.