Book Review: Lives of the Stoics

The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius

Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman is a new book that explores the teachings of Stoic philosophers by telling the stories of their lives.

Holiday and Hanselman are well-known to many as the authors of the bestselling The Daily Stoic. Holiday is also the author of a trilogy of successful books inspired, among other things, by his interest in Stoic philosophy: The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, and Stillness is the Key.

Lives of the Stoics is due for publication in the US on September 29th, by Penguin Random House, and will be available in audiobook and ebook as well as hardback format. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance review copy. I’m an author myself and so I receive a lot of new books to review but I can honestly say this is the one I was most looking forward to reading.

Let’s begin by noting that it stands in the venerable tradition of such works as Diogenes Laertius’ classic 3rd century Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. That’s one of our main historical sources for biographical information on Stoic philosophers. Though invaluable to scholars, it’s incomplete, as only seven of the original 27 chapters dealing with Stoics survive…