Browse audiobooks by Alberto Manguel, listen to samples and when you're ready head over to Audiobooks.com where you can get 3 FREE audiobooks on us
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: A Biography (Revised and Expanded Edition)
"A worldwide exploration of the history, purpose, and inescapable influence of the Iliad and the Odyssey that will inspire listeners to think anew about Homer's work No one knows whether Homer was a real person, but there is no doubt that the epic poems assembled under his name are foundations of Western literature. The Iliad and the Odyssey—with their tales of the Trojan War, Achilles, Odysseus and Penelope, the Cyclops, the beautiful Helen of Troy, and the petulant gods—have inspired us for over two and a half millennia and influenced writers from Plato to Virgil, Pope to Joyce, and Dante to Margaret Atwood. In this graceful and sweeping book, Alberto Manguel traces the lineage of Homer's poems. He examines their original purpose, either as allegory or record of history; surveys the challenges the pagan poems presented to the early Christian world; and looks at their reception after the Reformation through the present day. In this revised and expanded edition, Manguel ignites new ways of thinking about these classic works."
Alberto Manguel (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)
Audiobook
"This brief biography of Rudyard Kipling is an ideal introduction, for young and old alike, to the fascinating life and works of one of the finest writers 0f the last hundred years."
Alberto Manguel (Author), William Merryn Hill (Narrator)
Audiobook
"An exploration of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, author of The Guide of the Perplexed, from one of the world’s foremost bibliophiles Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin’s court. As a scholar of Jewish law, a physician, and a philosopher, Maimonides was a singular figure. His work in extracting all the commanding precepts of Jewish law from the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, interpreting and commenting on them, and translating them into terms that would allow students to lead sound Jewish lives became the model for translating God’s word into a language comprehensible by all. His work in medicine—which brought him such fame that he became Saladin’s personal physician—was driven almost entirely by reason and observation. In this biography, Alberto Manguel examines the question of Maimonides’ universal appeal—he was celebrated by Jews, Arabs, and Christians alike. In our time, when the need for rationality and recognition of the truth is more vital than ever, Maimonides can help us find strategies to survive with dignity in an uncertain world."
Alberto Manguel (Author), John Lescault (Narrator)
Audiobook
[Spanish] - Mientras embalo mi biblioteca: Una elegía y diez disgresiones
"Debido a una circunstancia desfavorable, el escritor Alberto Manguel debe embalar la biblioteca que ha cuidado y amado durante tantos años, instalada en la casa que habita en la campiña francesa. El viaje que nos depara este libro empieza ahí: con el autor despidiéndose del jardín amurallado, de su casa, del granero que albergaba los miles de libros que un amante de la lectura y los objetos que la posibilitan había reunido hasta entonces. El deber de guardar en cajas los ejemplares se presenta como una ocasión dolorosa, angustiante, para el escritor, pero también como un acicate para recordar con emoción y ternura las estaciones de su biografía marcadas por cada una de las bibliotecas que ha poseído (o lo han poseído a él), a lo largo de mudanzas, edades, países y vidas. Este paseo por el amor a los libros contiene, como cada libro de Manguel, una variedad de temas que van de lo literario a lo histórico, que visitan los estantes de la religión y la filosofía, y que terminan por decirnos que todo es un pretexto para adentrarse en páginas extraordinarias."
Alberto Manguel (Author), Gonzalo Moreno (Narrator)
Audiobook
Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions
"In June 2015 Alberto Manguel prepared to leave his centuries-old village home in France's Loire Valley and reestablish himself in a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Packing up his enormous, 35,000-volume personal library, choosing which books to keep, store, or cast out, Manguel found himself in deep reverie on the nature of relationships between books and readers, books and collectors, order and disorder, memory and reading. In this poignant and personal reevaluation of his life as a reader, the author illuminates the highly personal art of reading and affirms the vital role of public libraries. Manguel's musings range widely, from delightful reflections on the idiosyncrasies of book lovers to deeper analyses of historic and catastrophic book events, including the burning of ancient Alexandria's library and contemporary library lootings at the hands of ISIS. With insight and passion, the author underscores the universal centrality of books and their unique importance to a democratic, civilized, and engaged society."
Alberto Manguel (Author), James Cameron Stewart (Narrator)
Audiobook
"Alberto Manguel's The History of Reading was an international bestseller translated into thirty-four languages and for which Manguel earned the MEdicis Prize. Fourteen years later, Manguel anchors his new book in the primal connection between reading and curiosity. Tracing twenty-five centuries of human history, from the fourth century BC to the present day, Manguel dedicates each of his chapters to a single character-ranging from our best-known thinkers, scientists, and artists to seemingly minor figures of whom we know little more than one inspired utterance-in whom he identifies a particular way of asking the question 'Why?' Above all, he aims to 'awake in readers a consciousness of their own powers of enquiry and imagination, of their right to doubt and contest assumed answers, and of their responsibility in furthering the questions our ancestors were asking far away and long ago.' 'How wonderfully appropriate that the endlessly inquisitive Alberto Manguel should consider the fascinating concept of curiosity. Fueled by a lifetime of reading, and with Dante as his guide, he embarks on an elegantly conceived excursion of the mind, driven by a single, timeless word-why?'-Nicholas A. Basbanes, author of On Paper and A Gentle Madness 'Manguel vaults over the traditional fences of genre, literary history, and discipline with breathtaking virtuosity. He is the Montaigne de nos jours and, as regards this latest effort, if they put another rover on Mars they should call it 'Manguel.''-John Sutherland, University College London 'For Alberto Manguel reading is a pilgrimage, a secular-sacred encounter with mystery, and a way of reinvigorating the dead. Dante and Montaigne and Pinocchio's Collodi are his guides and his intimates in this passionate quest for knowledge, but it is the state of inquiry itself and even doubt that define for him the pleasures of curiosity. With his loving, keenly felt, highly enjoyable delving into writers and their writings, Manguel argues for literature's revelatory illusions, its epiphanies and its testimony.'-Marina Warner, Writer, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights 'Alberto Manguel is a wanderer among books, immensely curious in such an intriguing way that he lets his readers easily discover the fruits of his curiosity.'-Roberto Calasso 'This is a dynamic, lively book that leads the reader to appreciate the pleasures and the power of curiosity. In writing its remarkable history Alberto Manguel sees it both as a primary passion and as a force behind all intellectual experiences. In a sort of encyclopedic narrative Manguel journeys over the most distant places-from Dante's Florence to Rome, Jerusalem, Athens, and Latin America etc. and he invites us to a grand tour of wonders and surprises.'-Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University 'Manguel travels through books in the same way as he travels through various countries. He meets new friends and asks questions of them about himself, and about life. In a style which is all his own, he delights us with the unlimited bounds of human curiosity.'-Lina Bolzoni, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa Alberto Manguel is a writer, translator, editor, and critic, but would rather define himself as a reader and a lover of books. He was born in Buenos Aires and spent his childhood in Israel and his adolescence in Argentina. While attending the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, he worked in a bookstore where he met the blind Jorge Luis Borges, and became one of his readers for several years. After living in Europe and the South Pacific, working as an editor, in 1982 he moved to Canada and became a Canadian citizen. There he wrote for the Canadian newspapers, radio, and television, as well as for many other publications around the world. He now lives in a small village in France, surrounded by more than 30,000 volumes."
Alberto Manguel (Author), John McDonough (Narrator)
Audiobook
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