The Dharma Bums cover art

The Dharma Bums

Penguin Modern Classics

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Dharma Bums

By: Jack Kerouac, Ann Douglas
Narrated by: Ethan Hawke
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Jack Kerouac's classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning and the allure of nature.

A witty, moving philosophical novel, Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums is a journey of self-discovery through the lens of Zen Buddhist thought. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Ann Douglas.

Following the explosive energy of On the Road, the book that put the Beat Genration on the literary map - and Jack Kerouac on the best-seller list - comes The Dharma Bums, in which Kerouac charts the spiritual quest of a group of friends in search of Dharma, or truth. Ray Smith and his friend, Japhy, along with Morley the yodeller, head off into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude and experience the Zen way of life. But in wildly Bohemian San Francisco, with its poetry jam sessions, marathon drinking bouts and experiments in 'yabyum', they find the ascetic route distinctly hard to follow.

©1958 Jack Kerouac (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Classics Coming of Age Fiction Literary Fiction Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Desolation Peak cover art
Visions of Cody cover art
The Way of the White Clouds cover art
Fine Just The Way It Is cover art
Orwell: The Essays cover art
The Fortunate Pilgrim cover art
I Must Be Living Twice cover art
The Trail cover art
The Easy Life in Kamusari cover art
The Unlikely Thru-Hiker cover art
Musashi cover art
The Complete Jaipur Trilogy cover art
Kim cover art
A Room with a View cover art
A Psalm for the Wild-Built cover art
What the Buddha Taught cover art

What listeners say about The Dharma Bums

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    60
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    65
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    45
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

ethan hawke carries you through a brilliant story

wonderful narration, just as you imagine kerouac to have spoken himself. a story that takes you on an envious journey where life seemed simpler

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect

I must write 15 words, what is there to say when all things start and end.

This is perfect.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Refreshingly deep

Loved the purity of the story. Got to thank Ted for leading me to this path. Two stories one path. Nice.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A gem

It’s hard not to get swept up in Kerouac’s enthusiasm for everything. Ethan Hawkes reading is superb and perfect for Kerouac’s prose.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

I read this book as a twenty something whilst I was travelling and loved it then, but listening to this performance as a fifty something I was uplifted and transported by this tale of beatnik Buddhism.
Ethan Hawke is perfect as narrator and bought a new dimension to this work.
Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful