Audiobook Sample
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- Title: Principles of Economics, Book 2: Some Fundamental Notions
- Author: Alfred Marshall
- Narrator: LibriVox Volunteers
- Length: 01:20:02
- Version: Abridged
- Release Date: 01/01/2017
- Publisher: LibriVox
- Genre: Business & Economics, Economics
- ISBN13: SABLIB9788492
As I settled into my favorite armchair with a cup of oolong tea, the familiar crackle of a LibriVox recording transported me back to my graduate school days at Harvard, where Marshall’s “Principles” was required reading in our History of Economic Thought seminar. This audiobook version of Book 2: Some Fundamental Notions offers a fascinating auditory journey through the foundational concepts that shaped neoclassical economics, narrated with the charming variability characteristic of volunteer recordings.
What fascines me most about revisiting Marshall through audio is how the medium transforms his Victorian prose. The multiple narrators (a hallmark of LibriVox productions) create an intriguing polyphony that mirrors Marshall’s own synthesis of classical and marginalist thought. I particularly noted how different voices emphasized varying aspects of his definitions – one narrator’s crisp enunciation made his distinction between ‘necessaries’ and ‘luxuries’ particularly vivid, while another’s more contemplative pace brought depth to his discussion of the division of labor.
Through a cultural lens, listening to this 19th-century economic text while commuting through modern Tokyo (where I spent last semester as a visiting professor) created striking cognitive dissonance. Marshall’s discussion of wealth accumulation played against the backdrop of Akihabara’s neon consumerism, making me reflect on how his fundamental notions have evolved in our globalized economy. The experience reminded me of teaching Murakami’s works in translation – just as certain Japanese concepts resist English equivalents, some of Marshall’s Victorian economic assumptions require ‘translation’ for contemporary listeners.
The audio format particularly enhances Marshall’s pedagogical approach. His methodical building-block structure – defining wealth before production, production before consumption – benefits from the linear nature of audio consumption. I found myself appreciating his systematic approach more aurally than I had in print, perhaps because the narration forced me to engage with his definitions at his deliberate pace rather than skimming as I might in text.
Several passages stood out in their audio presentation:
1. The discussion of ‘real cost’ (Chapter 3) gained new resonance when read by a narrator with a slight Lancashire accent, subtly reminding us of Marshall’s concern with labor conditions.
2. The classification of goods into necessaries, comforts and luxuries (Chapter 4) became almost poetic in its rhythm when read by a female volunteer, highlighting the domestic sphere Marshall often overlooked.
3. The analysis of income distribution (Chapter 6) acquired contemporary relevance through the narrator’s unconscious emphasis on certain phrases about inequality.
However, the volunteer nature of the production does present challenges. The audio quality varies noticeably between chapters, and some narrators struggle with Marshall’s more technical passages. The chapter on the ‘law of diminishing returns’ suffers particularly from an uneven reading that may confuse first-time listeners. These limitations remind me of my Berkeley seminar’s discussion of how medium affects comprehension – while the free accessibility is invaluable, students might benefit from pairing this audio with Marshall’s original diagrams (available in digital editions).
Compared to other foundational economic texts in audio format, Marshall’s work presents unique opportunities and challenges. Where Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” benefits from dramatic narration in commercial audiobooks, Marshall’s more technical prose requires (but doesn’t always receive) narrators with strong economic literacy. That said, hearing multiple voices interpret Marshall democratizes the text in ways that parallel his own efforts to make economics accessible to Victorian readers.
For modern listeners, I’d recommend this audiobook particularly for:
1. Economics students seeking to supplement their textbook reading
2. Historians interested in the evolution of economic thought
3. Interdisciplinary scholars examining Victorian intellectual culture
4. Commuters who enjoy intellectually stimulating content
Pairing this listening with Joan Robinson’s critiques of Marshall or Amartya Sen’s welfare economics would create fascinating ‘conversations’ across economic traditions. The experience has inspired me to design a new module for my ‘Literature of Economics’ course comparing audio interpretations of foundational texts.
In scholarly solidarity,
Prof. Emily Chen
