The Story of My Misfortunes (or: Historia Calamitatum)
Autobiographies from remote historical periods can be especially fascinating.
Modes of self-presentation vary greatly across the centuries, as of course does
the very concept of Self.
Peter Abelard, the medieval philosopher and composer, here gives a concise
but vivid survey of his notoriously calamitous life. The work is couched in the
form of a letter to an afflicted friend. Abelard's abrasively competitive, often
arrogant personality emerges at once in the brief Foreword, where he informs his
correspondent: "(I)n comparing your sorrows with mine, you may discover that
yours are in truth nought.. and so shall you come to bear them the more easily."
(Summary by Martin Geeson)
Genre(s): Memoirs
Language: English
Section | Chapter | Reader | Time |
---|---|---|---|
Play 01 | Foreword, Chapters I-V | Martin Geeson |
00:28:30 |
Play 02 | Chapters VI, VII | Martin Geeson |
00:29:15 |
Play 03 | Chapters VIII, IX | Martin Geeson |
00:25:28 |
Play 04 | Chapters X-XII | Martin Geeson |
00:34:01 |
Play 05 | Chapters XIII-XV | Martin Geeson |
00:37:01 |