Themes & Styles

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Shaheen Khan. This definitive recording includes an introduction by J. D. Smith, read by Sagar Arya. The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It is of immense importance to the culture of the Indian...

Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer’s other great epic―the most revered war poem of all time....

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Steve John Shepherd, whose theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe, The Good Canary directed by John Malkovich, Bomber's Moon and Piaf. His TV and film credits range from the iconic This Life to Silent Witness...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by George Blagden, star of Versailles and Vikings. This definitive recording is translated by E.V. Rieu, revised by D.C.H. Rieu, and contains an introduction by Peter Jones. The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after...

"The Greatest Story Ever ToldDispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins-the Pandavas and the Kouravas-but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters...

"The Greatest Story Ever ToldDispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins-the Pandavas and the Kouravas-but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters...

"The Greatest Story Ever ToldDispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins-the Pandavas and the Kouravas-but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters...

Blake Ritson, David Warner, Hattie Morahan and John Hurt star in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Dante's epic poem. Inferno: Thirty-five year old Dante finds himself in the middle of a dark wood, in extreme personal and spiritual crisis. Hope of rescue appears in the form of the venerable poet...

In this book, Paramhansa Yogananda shares his exquisitely beautiful thoughts and words filled with longing for the divine....

Yogananda said Whispers from Eternity was one his favorite pieces of writing. He urged his followers to read and listen to it when he was gone from this world in order to reconnect with him....

The great legacy of The Iliad is its shattering revelation of what it means to be human in the face of life's uncertainty and fleeting mortality....

Brought to you by Penguin The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly...

From the celebrated author of Inward comes a new collection of poetry and short prose that illuminates how past wounds impact our present relationships....

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Adrian Schiller. In Paradise Lost Milton produced poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the...

The Ramayanam, an itihasa of the highest order, is considered adi kavya, the first poem to have been composed. Written by Valm ki during Rama's time, and ratified by him, this timeless epic has been treated with utmost care by all acaryas in their famed commentaries. Since the advent of human...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Lesley Manville (winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress and known for Phantom Thread and Mum), Derek Jacobi (winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and known for Gladiator and Gosford Park), Michael...

In this audiobook Maria Popova, creator of The Marginalian, presents a celebration of the human search for truth and beauty through the lenses of science and poetry. Poetry and science, as Popova writes in her introduction, "are instruments for knowing the world more intimately and loving it...

Inward is a collection of poetry, quotes, and prose that explores the movement from self-love to unconditional love, the power of letting go, and the wisdom that comes when we truly try to know ourselves. It is a reminder that healing, transformation, and freedom are possible....

The #1 New York Times bestselling poet returns with his most ambitious collection yet. In this third and final installment of his poetic trilogy, Yung Pueblo expands upon favorite themes while guiding readers further, toward a life lived authentically, intuitively, and in harmony with others. In...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by award-winning voice actor Martin Jarvis OBE, as well as John Sackville, Maya Saroya and the translator of this edition, David Raeburn. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Denis Feeney. Ovid's sensuous and witty...

One of the most popular and profound inspirational writers of all time shares simple wisdom for living a happy and fulfilling life. This is the essential Gibran, with 88 selections organized into 5 sections that elucidate answers to the questions that each of us face....

Dante's Divine Comedy is considered to be not only the most important epic poem in Italian literature, but also one of the greatest poems ever written....

More than 100 years after his birth, Pablo Neruda's poetry is as vital and beloved as ever....

Kahlil Gibran's aphorisms, stories, and poetry on a theme remain among some of those best known to Western readers. His views, however, extend beyond the most-quoted "greeting card" sayings to a wide realm of human emotions and relationships....

In The Nectar of Pain, Zebian sheds light on the feelings and experiences that emerge from a painful heartbreak. She writes that the process of cleansing oneself of that pain—day by day, hour by hour, and second by second—is the real work of healing....

The Collected Works of Kahlil Gibran: Deluxe Edition is a rich anthology that gathers the timeless poetry, prose, and philosophical essays of Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran, whose work explores love, spirituality, wisdom, and the human experience with lyrical depth and insight.

Unfinished Faith: Poems of Faith, Silence, and the Quiet Work of God is a contemplative poetry audiobook for listeners who encounter God not in certainty, but in stillness, wilderness, and the fragile beauty of ordinary life. Written and narrated by South African poet Elaine Rumboll, this collection invites a slow, attentive way of listening. These poems are shaped by silence, breath, and the long interior work of grace. Faith here is not triumphant or polished. It is tender, stubborn, and luminous — a quiet turning toward God in seasons of doubt, waiting, grief, and becoming.

George Herbert, one of the greatest spiritual poets of all time, influenced many of Christianity's most cherished writers including Richard Baxter, Charles Spurgeon, T. S. Eliot, and C. S. Lewis. His works, rich with vivid language, theological insight, and pastoral guidance, expand the listener's capacity to experience and delight in Christ. In this devotional volume, Stephen Witmer presents 40 of George Herbert's most impactful poems, favored for their brevity, accessibility, and relevance to contemporary Christians.

For generations, Arthur Waley’s lyrical translations served as the primary gateway to Chinese poetry for the English-speaking world. Organized by dynasty, this edition transforms Waley's scattered masterpieces into a coherent historical journey through Chinese literature, from the ancient Zhou foundational texts to the twilight of the Tang. This structure reveals the evolving concerns of Chinese civilization, from ritual and statecraft to intimate personal reflection and profound philosophical inquiry, all through Waley’s singular poetic voice.

Read by the author. Find hope and purpose as you discover that you’re right where you’re supposed to be. Maybe you thought you’d be further along by now. Or have a different kind of life. Maybe you thought that relationship would have happened, that dream would have come true, that path...