Audiobooks narrated by Douglas Harvey

Seven Sermons to the Dead: Septem Sermones ad Mortuos

In late 1913, Carl Jung set out on an exploration of his psyche, a quest he called his 'confrontation with the unconscious'. In doing so, he would enter an imaginative state of consciousness and experience visions, a process that continued with varying intensity for the next ten years. He recorded his visions in six black-covered journals that he referred to as the “Black Books”, which provided a chronological record of his visions and dialogues with his soul. Along the way he used this material to begin drafting the manuscript of his legendary Red Book, a red leather-bound illustrated volume that was the formal document of this journey and which he kept private during his lifetime. He maintained that the visions recorded in the Red Book represented the nucleus of all his later work. The “Seven Sermons to the Dead”, or Septem Sermones ad Mortuos, is the only portion of the Red Book manuscript that Jung shared during his lifetime. He had the Septem Sermones privately printed as a small book in 1916 and occasionally gave copies to friends and students; it was never published and was only available as a gift from Jung himself. Jung’s heirs denied access to the Red Book after his death in 1961 until 2009, when it finally published, and it was discovered that the Septem Sermones was the closing section of the book. This context, combined with the tone and content, led one Jungian scholar to consider them as the 'summary revelation of the Redbook'. The Sermones ad Mortuos was included as an appendix to Jung's autobiographical memoir Memories, Dreams, Reflections when it was published in 1962.

Carl Gustav Jung (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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The Moral Equivalent of War

This essay is based upon a speech given at Stanford University in 1906, William James’ last public utterance and is the original expression of the idea of non-military national service. While acknowledging the horrors of war and its motives, he also acknowledges the benefits that accrue when groups of people address themselves to a common purpose evident in military behavior. The modern reader will no doubt find certain attitudes regarding sex, race, and conquest of nature outdated. Nonetheless, one can’t help but admire the enlightened principles that have led to the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Peace Corps, VISTA, and AmeriCorps, and will likely be part of the effort to deal with global warming and climate change. The following from the essay is the gist of James’ thesis: “If now -- and this is my idea -- there were, instead of military conscription, a conscription of the whole youthful population to form for a certain number of years a part of the army enlisted against Nature, the injustice would tend to be evened out, and numerous other goods to the commonwealth would remain blind as the luxurious classes now are blind, to man’s relations to the globe he lives on, and to the permanently sour and hard foundations of his higher life. To coal and iron mines, to freight trains, to fishing fleets in December, to dishwashing, clotheswashing, and windowwashing, to road-building and tunnel-making, to foundries and stoke-holes, and to the frames of skyscrapers, would our gilded youths be drafted off, according to their choice, to get the childishness knocked out of them, and to come back into society with healthier sympathies and soberer ideas.”

William James (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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Citizenship in a Republic: 'Man in the Arena' Address given at Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 2

“Citizenship in a Republic” is the title of a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910. In the speech Roosevelt discusses the attributes required of its citizens and leaders to sustain a thriving national character, not least of which are a high moral character and energetic engagement. He has harsh words for those who act purely in self-interest, who cause division, and who sit on the sidelines while others do the heavy lifting. The address is also known as “The Man in the Arena” speech owing to a notable passage that is often quoted: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Numerous politicians, athletes, speakers and others have turned to the passage for inspiration. Incoming freshman at the U.S. Naval Academy are required to memorize the passage. NBA champion LeBron James has the “Man in the Arena” written on his shoes.

Theodore Roosevelt (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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The Oldest Code of Laws in the World

The Code of Hammurabi is a codification of the laws enacted by Hammurabi, the king of Babylonia and is one of mankind’s oldest known writings. It was inscribed on a stone stele, or monument, in approximately 1754 B. C. and was discovered by archeologists in 1901. The code was inscribed using cuneiform script in the Akkadian languages into a diorite stele that stands 7.4 feet tall. A small portion of the code is considered missing. Famous for the concept of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” the code itself consists of 282 laws. Criminal offenses are described in detail with associated physical punishments that are quite harsh and vary according to gender and social and economic status. It was one of the first code of law to emphasize physical punishment of the perpetrator as well as among the first to establish a presumption of innocence. Previous codes had focused on compensation to victims. Nearly half the code addresses contract issues such as prices for services and liabilities for damages or non-performance. About a third of the code consists of matters relating to household and family relationships such as marriage, divorce, paternity, inheritance, and reproduction. Several pertain to military service. Only one pertains to judicial conduct. The monument is on display in the Louvre in Paris; replicas are displayed in numerous institutions throughout the world.

Hammurabi, King Of Babylon. Translated By C. H. W. Johns. (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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Dreams

Since the beginning of time human beings have been seeking to understand the mystifying nature of dreams. A dream is a puzzle. I see objects but there is nothing there. I see people, I speak with them, yet there is no one there and I have not actually spoken. What is going on? In Dreams, first published in 1913, French philosopher Henri Bergson analyzes the phenomenon of dreaming as a product of the mind attempting to interpret what happens physiologically during sleep. Our eyes respond to light and shapes. We hear sounds. Our bodies move and we have the sensation of touch. Bergson explains that we relate these phenomena to the vast reservoir of experiences stored in our memory, which he believes stores each of our experiences in detail in perpetuity. The brain seeks to associate the perceptions in our dreams with those memories that most closely that data. The result may be disconnected, illogical, incoherent, and absurd, but that is likely because during sleep we have relaxed from the labor of making sense of connections when we are awake. In this short essay he manages to elucidate the profound metaphysics of dreaming and suggest new areas of inquiry in disciplines such as psychoanalysis that promise further understanding.

Henri Bergson (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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An Introduction to Yoga

These lectures are intended to give an outline of Yoga, in order to prepare the student to take up, for practical purposes, the Yoga sutras of Patanjali, the chief treatise on Yoga. I have on hand, with my friend Bhagavan Das as collaborateur, a translation of these Sutras, with Vyasa’s commentary, and a further commentary and elucidation written in the light of Theosophy. To prepare the student for the mastering of that more difficult task, these lectures were designed; hence the many references to Patanjali. They may, however, also serve to give to the ordinary lay reader some idea of the Science of sciences, and perhaps to allure a few towards its study.

Annie Besant (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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The Masque of the Red Death

First published in 1842, The Mask of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe is an allegorical short story in the Gothic horror vein. It is the 15th century. An unidentified country is infected with a contagion known as the Red Death. Half the population has succumbed to a quick, gory, and painful death. Prospero, the prince, deals with the situation by inviting a thousand of his to revel with him in a palace designed with seven rooms located in a secluded abbey. Each of the rooms, which are arranged east to west, are decorated with a monochromatic color scheme, and lit only by a brazier in the hallway which casts light through a stained-glass window. The last room to the west is decorated in black and contains a large clock that strikes heavily on the hour with a tone that stops the musicians from playing and the dancers in their tracks. As the midnight hour approaches a tall figure enters wearing a funeral shroud and a mask resembling the countenance of a corpse. All are terrified; some seek to fend off the intruder, to no avail. They discover there is nothing beneath his robes and mask. And then…

Edgar Allan Poe (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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The Nose

In 1722 Peter the Great introduced a system of positions and ranks for the military, the government, and the Russian court which enabled commoners to gain a modicum of nobility through service to the state. He did so in order to diminish the power of the hereditary nobility with whom he was struggling. This led to large bureaucracies and an obsession with appearances and status, a situation ripe for the brilliant satire of “The Nose”. The story is an absurd, comic, surreal and sometimes grotesque send up of Major Kovalyov, who wakes up one morning to find his nose missing. The story has three parts. In part one, Kovalyov's barber finds his client's nose in his breakfast and is nabbed by the police when he tries to throw it off a bridge. In part two, Kovalyov awakes to find his nose gone. When he leaves to report the loss, runs into it on the street dressed in the uniform of an important official who outranks him. He chases it, but the nose eludes him until it is apprehended it is about to flee the city by coach. The nose is returned to Kovalyov, but it can't be re-attached, leading him to suspect that a curse has been placed on him. Meanwhile, the nose has become the talk of the town. In part three, the Major awakes with the nose fully intact. Things just drift back to normal. The story is a staple of Russian literature, has been staged and adapted numerous times, and has had a monument erected in its honor in St. Petersburg.

Nicolai Gogol (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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That to Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die

We all die, sooner or later. We all know it, and we wonder when, where, and how it may happen. and yet we go to extraordinary lengths to put the thought of it out of our minds. We hesitate to bring it up in conversations. Montaigne, who … essay, addressed this issue head on in “To Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die.” It is perhaps his best-known essay, a kind of summation of his philosophy, and considered his most stoic. There are three main themes: first, do not forget that we all die, including you; second, there’s no reason to be afraid or to worry; third, be ready when the time comes, as it inevitably will. Keeping death in mind, he argues, diminishes the shock when it happens to others and alleviates the suffering by putting things in perspective. Acceptance and understanding should, in turn, help us remember that death is a part of the natural order, and that it happens only once, after which there is nothing to worry about simply because there is nothing after the end of it all. These all help us to be prepared and to appreciate the present even more, releasing us from the enslavement of fear and anxiety. Carpe diem! The essay contains numerous quotes in Latin from the ancients that reinforce his ideas. These are followed by an English translation and citation of the source in the original.

Charles Cotton, Michel De Montaigne (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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Rothschild's Fiddle

Yakov Ivanov is an elderly coffin-maker in a small village with a population that doesn’t generate enough deaths for him to make any real money. He is also a fiddler who sometimes sits in with a Jewish klezmer orchestra in spite of his dislike of Jews and of the flutist, Rothchild, in particular. Marfa, his long-suffering and unloved wife, becomes mortally ill with a contagious illness. He struggles to recall their shared past as he builds her coffin and soon he, too, succumbs to mortal illness, provoking a self-searching meditation and a change of heart.

Anton Chekhov. Translated By Constance Garnett. (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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The Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie, an immigrant from Dunfermline, Scotland with only a grammar-school education, amassed a fortune in the steel industry the 1800’s to become the richest American in history. Yet Carnegie believed strongly that the wealthy should live modestly, without ostentation, and devote their energies after achieving wealth to finding ways to invest their “surplus wealth” in ways that benefit the public. Historically, private fortunes were handed down to heirs, with bequests to the state for public purposes as well. Carnegie observed that fortunes were often squandered in self-indulgent extravagance and irresponsible spending and felt such funds would be better put to use to help the poor help themselves and reduce the stratification of the classes. He favored a system of progressive inheritance taxes to help facilitate this distribution, but also felt the best results would be achieved when those that had made the fortunes turned their attention to investing their capital in charitable enterprises that they controlled and even managed. He initially published his controversial ideas in the North American Review 1880 in an article entitled “Wealth”. It was later re-titled “The Gospel of Wealth” and published in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1889. It has become the foundation document that sets forth much of the thinking behind philanthropy since his time. It has been called the ‘urtext’ of modern philanthropy by Benjamin Soskis, a historian of philanthropy. The article appears here in two versions. The first is a new reading by D. S. Harvey and the second is recording of Carnegie himself.

Andrew Carnegie (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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The Art of Money-Getting, or, Golden Rules for Making Money

Learn The 20 Time Tested Business Rules To Attract More Money, More Prospects and More Customers To You From 'The Father Of Marketing' - PT Barnum So read the copy for advertisements for The Art of Money Getting; or, Golden Rules for Making Money, a concise guide to the principles of sound business and financial management written by P. T. Barnum and published in 1880 as a 96-page paperback at the height of his worldwide popularity. The book consists of an introduction on the general subject followed by twenty concise chapters on Barnum’s rules of success, and is considered by many as the first and possibly the manual for effectively using advertising, promotion and public relations as essential tools of getting the message to the public as a critical factor in business development. “This has all of the very same advice that today's personal finance books have, but you can see how it was implemented in the 19th century. It also contains some very interesting advice on guiding children in their education and choice of a career that I think is still valid today. If you like personal finance books, but are also curious to know history at street level, this will be a terrific book for you. And it will really change your opinion of Mr. Barnum himself.” Reviewer at manybooks.net

Phineas Taylor 'p.T. Barnum' (Author), Douglas Harvey (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Douglas Harvey