Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics)

This book is spectacular, but advertised as containing audio version as well. The end of the book has a chapter called "Link to free audio recording of Seneca's Letters." The chapter just says "The Letters of Seneca," with no link. The text is not live either, so it's not like you touch it and it goes to the link in question.

One of the greatest philosophy essays of all time. If this abridged version struks you, stop reading immediately ang get the rare and expensive unabridged edition (I believe there is only one in English, a 5 volumes $150 gift for you, your family and some rare and precious friends). If you can read Latin get the Italian dual translation and very cheap edition. If it doesn't struk you, well.....I'm soooo sorry.

Reading Seneca's letters out of context, you could easily assume he was alive today. He seems like a wise old man who writes very engaging emails. That speaks to the timelessness of Seneca's themes, but also the translator's gift at bringing the Latin text into modern English. Highly recommended.

One thing that must be remembered when reading through this book is that it is a series of letters and as such the book can be quite disjointed when moving from letter to letter.
Only complaint is the quality of paper the book is printed on: very light and flimsy.

Kindle formatting is horrible. No paragraphs, endless blocks of text. Would be much more readable if it were formatted into something that was more readable by humans. Font size changes weirdly often too

I bought both the Kindle and paperback version of this book from the store. The Kindle edition I got has all the letters (about 2-3x more than the paperback). Tim Ferris (author of The Four Hour Workweek) described this book as his operating system that all other 'programs' are installed upon. This is a very good description of what this book is. It's amazing to see the massive amount of similar issues, thoughts, and problems that were common 2000 years ago to be nearly identical in our current age.

This is not a philosophical book that rambles on in such high level abstract thoughts that you can't gain anything from it, and Seneca also does a great job at berating philosophers that just get into semantic debates or ones where there is no enlightening outcome. Other reviewers describe the book in its detail well, but suffice it to say that this is one of the most practical and entertaining books on Stoic philosophy that will allow you to practically live a better life.

I really enjoyed this book; there are many valuable principles I felt like I could apply in my life. The translation and curating of the text itself is great!!
There are just a couple of his letters about meta-philosophy that I felt were a bit much. Overall, I would totally recommend this book to introspective people who like to challenge themselves to grow.

I don't hate it. I am absolutely disappointed that the forty-ninth letter, On the Shortness of Life, didn't make the cut. I didn't know that this was the abbreviated version of the moral letters. I will likely give this away and buy a different copy. Outer blue ornate design has worn and fallen off substantially after about six months of ownership.

Note: the Kindle version is NOT the Robin Campbell translation the store claims it to be; instead, it is the public domain translation by Richard M Gummere, which you can also find in other editions here on the store.

The letters are a cornerstone of stoic philosophy, but I seriously can't recommend the print version. It is the cheapest physical book I've ever seen, even the cover photo is a pixelated blown up thumbnail, and then it gets worse as you open it! The font is ridiculously small, while the line spacing is absurdly wide for the lines. But the paper is too thin and cheap for this to be for adding your own notes! I bought this as a gift, but threw it away as soon as I realized my error. This is a shame, and should be removed from circulation. Do not buy the physical copy, you will be disappointed.

This review has to do with the store. I purchased the book, but they gave me the wrong kindle version. Please be careful when you choose the version, because apparently there is one from Penguin with Robin as the author, which does not include everything, and there is the sample one which i browsed, but i did not get, and included over 100 letters. So, just keep that in mind.

This will not be a review about Seneca. I suppose I will attempt that one day once I manage to go thru my library's Loeb Classical Library edition of Seneca's Epistles.
The purpose of this review is to bellyache about the Penguin Classics' edition of this work. I come not to criticize this translation. I have no Latin. For all I know it is brilliant.
What I am here to criticize is the decision to edit Seneca's work all to Tartarus and back. There are 124 Letters in Seneca's Epistles. Campbell gives you 40. Or just over 32%! Campbell's criteria as to which letters to present is a personal one. He evaluated their interest and whether or not they were repetitive. His is admittedly charming in his own defense on this issue. He quotes Roger L'Estrange (another anthologist of Seneca's) from 1673 to the effect that anyone who complains about the selection is an unmannerly guest who eats at his host's table and then critiques the meal. I embrace this description. I may well use The Unmannerly Guest as my nom de plume for my reviews from now on.
Here is my problem. All too often the editors or translators of the Penguin Classic editions decide that they know better than the ancient author what is valuable about the work for today's reader. Their Plutarch is one such travesty. Their edition of Polybius is another. What makes it more confusing is they can get it right sometime, as with their edition of Livy.
I think they are really missing their chance here. The Penguin Classics series is the perfect publishing series for modern and complete editions of ancient authors presented in their original form as much as is possible.
Let us look at how personal Campbell's choice is. I happen to be reading The Roman Stoics: Self, Responsibility, and Affection by Gretchen Reydams-Schils. She happens to cite 185 passages from Seneca's Epistles during the course of her book. Because I am The Unmannerly Guest, I took it upon myself to count up how many of those passages were not in Campbell's selection. 122 of the 185 or just over 65%. In other words, she made as much use of the letters Campbell did not publish as those he did. His choices were no more representative of Seneca's thought to Reydams-Schils than the letters he rejected.
Here's another way to look at it. Seneca was writing about a philosophy to be lived. Not a system of thought but a guide to behavior. It is inevitable that such a guide would be repetitive. The same sort of issues, of temptations, of annoyances come up again day after day with slight variations (e.g.,anyone trying to raise courteous children knows what I mean). Repetition in an author dealing with such a guide is to be expected; indeed, it is to be appreciated as helpful. It takes time to learn how to live.
I think we ought to take old Seneca and Plato and Augustine and Machiavelli and Locke and so on seriously. When we read them we should try to sink into their way of living not just their way of thinking about that life. Only then can we evaluate how much they speak to us.
The Penguin Classics, accordingly to this Unmannerly Guest, do not help us in this endeavor. And the fact that they have chosen to present us with a highlighted tour of ancients like Seneca and Polybius is a betrayal of the original mission of the series which was to make the classics easily available to the masses. I speak for those masses as much as anyone. And I say, give me the whole da*@ book. Let me be the one to make the editing decisions.