E. Smyth

Great Book but Narrator Sounds Like AI

Reviewed: 06-09-23

This is a great book for those interested in 17th century philosophy and/or religious history. It's well organized and well written. It's a great introduction not only to Spinoza but also to other early enlightenment thinkers, as well as the Dutch Golden Age. Struggles between the various religious communities and the intellectual elite are vividly relayed and I very much enjoyed this book.

However, the reader sounds a bit like he's narrating from the uncanny valley. I don't know if it's a human whose recording is just over-edited or if they really did make at least some use of artificial intelligence, but it feels like there's an edit every second or third sentence because the cadence and lilt of the speech is just a little bit off. It's not terribly noticeable at first but once you hear it, you can't help but keep hearing it all the way through.

Still, the oddness of the reading is subtle enough that you can ignore it and enjoy the book if you're interested in the subject. I still recommend it, with the small caveat about the narration.

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1 person found this helpful

A Voice from Another Time

Reviewed: 04-03-23

Winchester writes as only the most gifted of those who came of age in the mid 20th century can write. Precision and aesthetics come together on every page, every paragraph is composed for both clarity and beauty, resulting in a spellbinding account of how mechanical perfection was conceived, then achieved, over the course of the last two and a half centuries. What might be tedious in the hands of a lesser writer Winchester makes to sparkle like a well-written poem or novel.

Marvelous!

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Pure Fun!

Reviewed: 04-03-23

This is a book to listen to when you need to unwind. Ndiaye does NOT disappoint, delivering the laugh-out-loud wit and perspicuity we've all come to love and admire. The delivery is a little slower than in his online videos (which by the nature of the platform have to be kept quite short) but Mamadou Ndiaye's brilliance shines through and if you really want the super-fast cadence of the TikToks, you can always speed up the recording.

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Excellent Listen!

Reviewed: 04-03-23

This text is very interesting. Paine writes plainly but very well, and his excitement about the progress being made in his time in politics and science shines through. His book represents one side of the clash between radical enlightenment values and what was then the old order of Christianity. I think we can appreciate the passion and importance of this clash when we reflect on the effects of the "culture wars" of our own time.

Beyond religious considerations, "The Age of Reason" illustrates the philosophical struggle that helped lead to the American Revolution. It's well known that many of the Founding Fathers were Deists and Paine, who had been a school teacher at one point, lays out in everyday language the thinking of an 18th century skeptic, of which there were many at * every * level of society in the American colonies - a fact that today is rather less well known. When Ethan Allen, a farmer who had never been to school, dared some of his highly-placed Tory opponents to come out of their courtrooms and settle things in the green mountains of Vermont, he closed his thinly-veiled threat with, "the gods of the valley are not the gods of the hills, and you shall understand it!" This may sound rather cryptic to us today but his contemporaries would have known that he was talking about the concept of Nature's God, then a widely popular idea that's much better understood by today's readers once one has listened to "The Age of Reason." Nature's god is not the god of the Bible, it's a god that can only be revealed through the scientific study of Nature.

Also, the narrator is terrific! Mr. Field very much encapsulates the feeling in Paine's complaints about the impositions of religious fanaticism, among other things. The pacing is well-considered, with pauses added and the narration being slightly slowed down to make it easier to follow the 18th language. Certainly no ebook narrator is everyone's cup of tea but I do wish those who've complained about the narration would have just taken the five minutes or so to just listen to the audio sample before purchasing this book and then moved on, rather than buy something they hadn't properly considered and then lay blame elsewhere. Fortunately most listeners seem to enjoy Mr. Field's performance as much as I have.

One caveat: it did take me a little while to get used to the harpsichord interludes between sections, but they turned out to be rather helpful in signaling the beginnings and endings of discrete portions of the book.

Overall, very satisfied with this book!

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Wonderful Course!

Reviewed: 06-14-22

It’s such a pleasure to find a new lecture series by Dr. Daileader! His wit, erudition and complete freedom from ideological bias make him unique and this course on Charlemagne, like all his other offerings, an utter delight. Highly recommend!

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Another Brilliant Performance by Dr. Dialeader

Reviewed: 04-24-21

Once again Dialeader brings his special brand of clarity, wisdom, and humor to a fascinating period of medieval history. I heartily recommend this and every other series he's recorded for the Great Courses. Philip Dialeader is a national treasure.

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Wonderful Introduction

Reviewed: 11-01-20

Dr. Philip Dialeader introduces the High Middle Ages with concietiousness, balance and humor. His course blends various historical approaches with great story telling and as with all his courses for the Learning Company, he turns a compassionate eye on all the many players of the medieval stage as he considers their struggles and triumphs. Anyone wanting to know more about this fascinating and transformative period of Western history will be delighted by Dialeader's lectures for The Great Courses.

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WONDERFUL INTRO TO THE ODYSSEY

Reviewed: 06-17-17

Professor Vandiver brings Homer's Odyssey to life in this ineresting, yet easy to follow lecture series. I highly recommend this, along with her courses on the Ilead, the Aeneid and classical mythology as a solid foundation for all the other Great Courses on Greco-Roman civilization and literature.

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Fantastic!

Reviewed: 06-09-17

This course is a great follow-up to the basic courses on Greece and Rome offered by The Learning Company. The integrated history explored here takes it all to another and very satisfying level. The professor is entertaining as well as informative. Highly recommended for anyone who already has some basic knowledge of ancient Greece and Rome and wants to know much more.

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Wonderful course!

Reviewed: 04-02-17

This audio course was informative, engaging, and fun. The professor delivered high-level content in an understandable way and I would definitely purchase other courses by her. The quality of the recordings is also very good. Highly recommended for anyone interested in ancient Greece or history in general.

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