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LRB Audiobooks

Discover the LRB’s new audiobook collections, each featuring a selection of pieces read by the author and an introductory conversation.

Free chaptersListen to a free chapter from our audiobooks on the LRB Podcast:

On Jean-Paul Sartre from Becoming a Philosopher by Jonathan Rée hereOn Edith Piaf from Complicated Women by Bee Wilson hereOnce purchased you can listen to the full audiobook in your preferred podcast app.

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image for Becoming a Philosopher: Spinoza to Sartre

Audiobook

Becoming a Philosopher: Spinoza to Sartre

£9.99

In ‘Becoming a Philosopher’ Jonathan Rée describes the extraordinary lives of some of most influential thinkers of the past four hundred years and the radical and sometimes bizarre ideas that emerged from them. In so doing he challenges the notion of philosophy as a set of fixed ideas to be arranged and catalogued like botanical specimens. Rather, the philosophical life is revealed, as Kierkegaard has described, as one of relentless struggle, a never-ending ‘dance in the service of thought’ which might, with luck, result in a single fresh idea.

This collection of ten biographical pieces, originally published as book reviews in the London Review of Books, begins with Spinoza, the excommunicated lens grinder who sought as little attention as possible for his anonymously published work; and ends with Sartre, the most public of public intellectuals whose funeral was marked by thousands on the streets of Paris. In between we find Newton working tirelessly to establish a chronology of the ancient world; Hegel gazing on Napoleon as he marches through Jena in 1806; and Wittgenstein drawing up plans for a new kind of propeller before writing his landmark Tractatus in the trenches of the First World War. Alongside them we also meet Leibniz, Hume, Lessing, Kierkegaard and Collingwood.

This audiobook also features an introductory conversation between Jonathan Rée and Thomas Jones, an editor at the LRB and presenter of the LRB Podcast.

These pieces have been amended in places from the original for the purposes of recording.

Jonathan Rée is a regular contributor to the LRB whose books include 'Proletarian Philosophers', 'Witcraft' and 'A Schoolmaster’s War'.

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image for Complicated Women

Audiobook

Complicated Women

£9.99

In ‘Complicated Women’, Bee Wilson explores the lives of ten women who achieved notoriety and influence in their own times and whose legacy is still felt today. Her subjects include Maria Montessori, author of the groundbreaking philosophy of child-centred learning, and Hedy Lamar, who developed the ideas behind wifi. For Clara Petacci, power came through her private life, while Alma Mahler faced the choice between creative and personal fulfilment.

In this collection of ten biographical essays, originally published in the London Review of Books, Wilson takes a candid look at her subjects and asks what it takes for a woman to make her mark in a world where legitimate sources of power are often denied. A bravura performance is one answer: from the clumsy but audacious fake Spanish dancer Lola Montez to the dazzlingly talented and politically daring Elizabeth Taylor. For the self-effacing Constance Lytton, her greatest act came in prison, exposing the British government’s treatment of working-class suffragettes. But perhaps the most complicated accounts emerge from the world of fashion, where Coco Chanel and Vivienne Westwood challenged the way women are allowed to appear in the world.

These pieces have been amended in places from the original for the purposes of recording.

Bee Wilson is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books whose books include ‘The Way We Eat Now’ and ‘First Bite: How We Learn to Eat’, as well as a cookbook, ‘The Secret of Cooking’.

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Can I use my current podcast app?

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Sorry, but we do not support Stitcher, Podbean, or NPR One.

You’ll also be able to listen to your audiobook or podcast purchase online.

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