“Extreme busyness…is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.”
What comforting words for the idle among us! Like many of the best essayists, Stevenson is very much the genial fireside companion: opinionated, but never malicious; a marvellous practitioner of the inclusive monologue.
In this collection of nine pieces he discusses the art of appreciating unattractive scenery, traces the complex social life of dogs, and meditates in several essays upon the experience of reading literature and writing it. Perhaps his most personal passages concern death and mortality. Here we meet him at his most undogmatically optimistic, as he affirms a wholesome faith in “the liveableness of Life”.
(Summary by Martin Geeson)
What comforting words for the idle among us! Like many of the best essayists, Stevenson is very much the genial fireside companion: opinionated, but never malicious; a marvellous practitioner of the inclusive monologue.
In this collection of nine pieces he discusses the art of appreciating unattractive scenery, traces the complex social life of dogs, and meditates in several essays upon the experience of reading literature and writing it. Perhaps his most personal passages concern death and mortality. Here we meet him at his most undogmatically optimistic, as he affirms a wholesome faith in “the liveableness of Life”.
(Summary by Martin Geeson)
LibriVox recordings are public domain in the United States; copyright status may differ elsewhere.
Chapters
- Chapter 1
01 - On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places
27:02 - Chapter 2
02 - An Apology for Idlers
34:04 - Chapter 3
03 - Aes Triplex
31:25 - Chapter 4
04 - Talk and Talkers, part one
41:29 - Chapter 5
05 - Talk and Talkers, part two
35:04 - Chapter 6
06 - A Gossip on Romance
45:43 - Chapter 7
07 - The Character of Dogs
36:20 - Chapter 8
08 - A College Magazine
32:00 - Chapter 9
09 - Books Which Have Influenced Me
24:23 - Chapter 10
10 - Pulvis et Umbra
25:14