The Georgics cover art

The Georgics

 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 Georgics

By: Virgil
Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
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
Switch payment method
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

 Virgil's Georgics ranks as one of the most precious pastoral poems ever written, and it has served as a model for its type ever since. Georgics means "of or relating to agriculture or rural life" and it comes from the Greek word "georgicus". Virgil's main theme in this, his second great work after The Eclogues, was the importance of peace both in the spiritual and physical sense. One arrives at this peace through embracing the hard life of the farmer and also coming to an understanding of one's place in the universe.

Virgil used the Greek poet Hesiod as his guide for describing why the cheerful acceptance of laboring on a farm was salutary. (Hesiod's Works and Days is an attempt by the poet to explain to an estranged brother why his work on the family farm would make him a better person.)

As for an understanding of one's place in the universe, Virgil used as his model the Epicurean philosophy in the poetry of his fellow Roman, Lucretius. But although Virgil absorbed the incredible poetry of both Hesiod and Lucretius, he did not copy them. His work is entirely his own. The Georgics is an amazing synthesis of the scientific and the spiritual which continues to amaze us to this day.

This great poem is organized into four parts, or books. Its ostensible subject is farming and the correct seasons for the various chores of the farmer: the cultivation of vines and the planting of trees, farm animals and their diseases, and, finally, how to care for bees. Though Virgil claims that his aim is to teach, the real result is to inspire us with the genius of his poetic ability.

©2007 Audio Connoisseur (P)2007 Audio Connoisseur Classics Collections Literary History & Criticism Poetry Greece Flower Farming
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Aeneid cover art
The Poetry of Hell cover art
The Eclogues and Georgics cover art
On the Nature of Things cover art
Summer - A Season in Verse cover art
The Works and Days cover art
The Poetry Hour, Volume 1 cover art
The Oresteia cover art
The Odes of Horace cover art
The Iliad of Homer cover art
The Lays of Marie de France cover art
Jason and the Argonauts cover art
Alfred Tennyson cover art
Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins cover art
Endymion cover art
Robert Burns: Nature cover art

Critic reviews

"The best poem of the best poet." (John Dryden)
"The most accomplished work of poetry." (Michel de Montaigne)

What listeners say about The Georgics

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

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

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Clothilda

Don't judge a book by its cover

The content is nothing like the sample provided. I was expecting something soothing and calming with choral imterludes, but, no.(would suggest: not for the faint-hearted or vegetarians). Try not to let the awful narration put you off!

Report this

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!