Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium (Penguin Classics)

I think this is an excellent book but I also like these Penguin pocket hardbacks and hope it is a range they plan to expand upon, the volumes are small enough for a large coat pocket or the side pocket of some cargo pants, there is attached to the spine a ribbon book mark and the binding is good, it holds fast and provides a sturdy book but is not stiff and there is no difficulty with the pages turning.This edition has a great introduction which provides biographical information at the writer and some comment and context to the work itself, including suggestion that while Seneca was a great writer and very wise in print he was not always the best at applying his own philosophy in his own life, although as the author states in the introduction he succeeded in humanising what had been and can be otherwise a very harsh philosophy (indeed another stoic's shame at shedding a tear at bereavement gets a mention in contrast). Like I mentioned in a review of another from this series, I get the feeling having read the book and then reading the introduction once more than it would have been a better idea to have read the book itself first and then read the introduction. I do share the view expressed in the introduction that Seneca probably did compose the letters with a thought that they would be published or collected, the detail in the introduction supports this alone but reading the letters I cant help but believe they are second or third drafts as opposed to spontaneous single compositions.The letters themselves are not long, it would be possible to choose to read one each day like those treasury books which are divide so as to permit a different reading for each day of a year or seasons of a year. Each letter is full of fantastic, quotable sentences and paragraphs and Seneca further to this also includes details of some reading he has done and what he has found quotable in them, kind of in a "thought for the day" fashion. I particularly liked his reference in one of the earlier letters about reading Epicurus, as a "reconnaissance" of the rival camp rather than a "desertion" of his own.There is great wisdom and thinking in each letter and they are as entertaining as they are enlightening, while this book would appeal to fans of Seneca's other books, Penguin has printed in their great ideas series a small book including an essay on the shortness of life (a life well lived is long, whatever its length may be being the main conclusion), readers interested in Stoicism or philosophy, it should prove just as accessible and interesting to a general reader too.

Great product

This book is unreviewable. It is a piece of history and beyond criticism. It’s worth remembering that these were personal correspondences with a friend, and therefore, the usual standards of literary critique, I feel, don’t apply. These letters were not crafted for a wide audience or with the intention of perfection - they are honest reflections, pieces of advice, and meditations on life and philosophy. To critique them as one would a work of literature or philosophy book would miss the deeply human and conversational nature of the text. They are intimate and raw, offering glimpses of senecas mind. To sit here and say “it’s this” or “it’s that” would be inappropriate of me, I feel. But if you were to ask me would I recommend letters of a stoic? Yes, yes I would.

Lucius Seneca is one of the most famous Roman philosophers, he was instrumental in guiding the Roman empire under the Emperor Nero. The book reads like a diary or a handbook of philosophical meditations, and I am finding it very thought provoking and enjoyable.

Excellent book

It’s not often you read a classical author and feel you are reading one of your contemporaries. But this is the case with Seneca in these letters which he wrote to a friend in the early 60s AD. They are affable, witty, and supremely accessible. Perhaps the most striking thing about them is their materialist discourse at a time when religious explanations were widespread. For Seneca the universe consisted of matter informed by creative reason, the same reason that informs the human personality. Hence the Stoic assertion that god is within us, and that a virtuous life lived according to reason could achieve tranquillity, the state of being of the gods, if there are any. Ethics was accordingly the centre of philosophy for the Stoics, with their basic concepts of moderation, acceptance, and endurance. And the letters are filled with practical advice on how to live a virtuous and happy life, much of which seems eminently sensible today. There’s his advice, for example, on how to cope with the Saturnalia, the Roman festival later transformed into Christmas: don’t overindulge, but don’t opt out either. Stoicism, however, was the ideology of the ruling class, and it has the limitations of the class it derives from: self-direction, social and political conservatism, indifference to the plight of others. Its historical significance lies in becoming the personal ethic of Christianity, supplemented by the New Testament ethic of neighbourly love, after the adoption of Christianity by the Roman empire in the fourth century. An instructive and enlightening collection rendered in a sympathetic and unobtrusive translation.

If you are interested in Stoicism in the slightest. Then this is a must read. Very accessible for the modern reader, considering it was from a guy who lived a long time ago. It’s a book of letters to friends so the chapters are relatively short, but full of wisdom and criticisms (of society) that are still relative today. I would say get this over any of the so called modern writers who write about stoicism, ahem Ryan Holiday - Terrible writer who is full of himself, put me off reading stoic philosophy for the longest time. Get this book and Meditations it will give you an insight into all you need to know about Stoicism. Epictetus is good too but a bit harder to read and he’s a bit preachy.

Nice binding. Great letters from Senecca - powerful but readable in this translation