List $28.98

Written by Plato - Audio book narrated by Bruce Alexander - Translated and abridged by Tom Griffith - Produced by Nicolas Soames - 4 COMPACT DISCS - 4 hours, 49 minutes

Publisher, Naxos Audiobooks (May 2000)

One of the key works of world philosophy, The Republic sets out to consider the principles behind an ideal city-state … Plato employed his Theory of Forms not only in metaphysical speculation about the original creation of the everyday world in which people live, but also in showing the way human society should be construed in an ideal world.

The Republic deals primarily with the principles behind the nature of justice and the reasons that people should be just instead of unjust. "Justice", Plato argues, "is advantageous; it consists of subordinating the irrational to the rational in the soul. By using the truly just polis as a model for understanding this notion, Plato presents a vision of the "ideal structure for human society." Like a just soul, the just society would have it parts in proper hierarchy. In The Republic, Plato distinguishes three classes of people, by their ability to grasp the truth of Forms - Each class contributing to society by fulfilling its proper function.

No sooner than Bruce Alexander had left the studio having recorded Thomas Hardy, he was back at his Oxfordshire home studying hard for the next Naxos AudioBooks project: Plato's The Republic. "There couldn't have been a greater contrast - the deeply emotional Hardy, and the rationalist character of Socrates," admitted Bruce Alexander. And both are about as far away possible from the character for which he is probably best known, Superintendent Mullett in the British TV series A Touch of Frost. "That is what being an actor is all about," declared Alexander. The worst thing for us is when are typecast, which can happen so easily. Fortunately, this happens less on the audiobook/radio medium than on or film where visual concerns can be paramount."

The recording of The Republic uses the new translation by Tom Griffith, who prepared it for Cambridge University Press. It will be released by CUP in the near future, but is 'previewed' by this abridgement made by the translator himself. "I started translating because I found that when I was teaching, and read from existing translations, I could see the interest fade from my pupils' eyes", explained Griffith. "But I know this can capture the imagination and thoughts of young people, and so I started translating passages in language which was as contemporary as the original would have been in the 5th century BC." The Republic is one of a number of translations he has now included - among others is Symposium.