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Book Review "The Emperor's Handbook": An introductory book on Stoic Philosophy

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The Emperor's Handbook is a translation of the works of Marcus Aurelius, the famous Roman emperor. The contents of this book are the personal writings of Marcus Aurelius on how to lead his life according to stoic philosophy. 

Written from 161 to 180 AD, The Emperor's Handbook (also named as Mediations in other translations) is a compilation of Aurelius's personal notes to himself and his views on stoic philosophy. These writings were like a manual to lead a good life and guideline for self-improvement to himself. There are 12 books in this set of writings. The books do not follow any chronological sequence. In fact, the contents of this book were never meant for publication. They were written by the emperor to remind himself about how to lead his life. 

Cover of The Emperor's Handbook
Cover of The Emperor's Handbook

The original text was written in Greek. This translation of Marcus Aurelius's writings is easy to read. I tried to read a few other translations but failed to grasp the inner meanings. This one felt quite easy and simple to understand. There were some reputations of the same ideas on different chapters - which seemed kind of weird to me. Some of the readers complained about the same thing. Overall, it's a good translation. 

Although the book was written about 2000 years ago, the ideas of the books seemed practical to me even in today’s world. The stoic philosophers perceived the world as it is, they did not fantasize of a perfect world free from all evils- that thing is very interesting to me. The Emperor's Handbook Is an introductory book on stoic philosophy. The book features the ideas of how stoics see the world, how they lead their lives. Marcus Aurelius was heavily influenced by ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus, so there are some quotations of Epictetus are present in the book. If you have an interest in Stoic philosophy, you should read this book. Truly speaking, this book helped me a lot to overcome some problems in my life. The last few months have been terrible for my mental health. I used to become very much irritated by almost everything around me, I was unsatisfied with everything I had, and so on. The ideas of this book helped me to overcome that situation (maybe that was placebo, but that worked). This book has changed my way of thinking about life. The Emperor's Handbook is one of the best books I have read till date. You also should read this book. 


At a glance:


Name of the book: The Emperor's Handbook: A New Translation of The Meditations

Writer: Marcus Aurelius

Translator: C. Scot Hicks & David V. Hicks

Number of pages: 145

Publisher: Scribner

Location: Bangladesh

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