The Republic

The Original Unabridged and Complete Edition (Plato Classics)

By: Plato

Narrated by: Jeffrey Ito

The Republic is a Socratic dialogue, authored by Plato around 375 BCE, concerning justice, the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. It is Plato's best-known work, and one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically.

In the dialogue, Socrates discusses the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man with various Athenians and foreigners. He considers the natures of existing regimes and then proposes a series of hypothetical cities in comparison, culminating in Kallipolis, a utopian city-state ruled by a philosopher-king. They also discuss ageing, love, theory of forms, the immortality of the soul, and the role of the philosopher and of poetry in society. The dialogue's setting seems to be the time of the Peloponnesian War.

©2024 Plato (P)2024 Plato

Hard to listen to

Sound quality is bad. Reader does not project well. Doesn’t help with an already difficult book.

I'd prefer reading it myself.

The reader seemed unfamiliar with the text. The reader's lack of inflection suggested someone who was reading words without an understanding of their context. The reader's cadence was hesitant and lacked natural flow, stopping at odd intervals in a way that, coupled with the poor inflection was painful to listen to. Pronunciations were a struggle, and recording quality was inconsistent throughout. Acceptable diction of individual words.

The book itself was good but narration is terrible

Review is for the audible quality. Terrible the guy sounded like he read the whole book while in the bathroom it was hard to understand due to the reverb and echo. His pacing of sentences was also very stilted. Only recommend this despite it being free for audible members.

Sound is awful

The audio sounds like it was recorded in an empty room with the mic too far away. Lots of echo and weak clarity. It needs tighter mic placement and better room treatment.

This reader is awful

He pronounces many of the words (let alone names) wrong and has such strange emphasis that I struggle to understand what the sentence is saying. Please get a pro to do this.