“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Apology · Plato

The books that shaped humanity.

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How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was — so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth. How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was — so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth. How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was — so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth. How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was — so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth. How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was — so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth. How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was — so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth.

Marble bust of a classical philosopher wearing crimson headphones

Modern problems. Ancient answers.

Every question you carry today was asked long ago — and answered by minds still worth hearing.

Can't stop overthinking?→MeditationsMarcus Aurelius
Burned out by ambition?→Tao Te ChingLaozi
Navigating office politics?→The PrinceMachiavelli
Losing your focus?→Yoga SutrasPatañjali
Outplayed by the competition?→The Art of WarSun Tzu
What is love, really?→SymposiumPlato
Standing by what you believe?→ApologyPlato
Far from home?→The OdysseyHomer

A Greek temple on a green hill below a snow-capped mountain

8th century BC – 2nd century AD

Greece & Rome

From Homer to the Stoics — the minds that started it all, now listening.

Homer bust — HomerPoetc. 8th century BCThe Iliad · The Odyssey

Plato bust — PlatoPhilosopherc. 428–348 BCThe Republic · Apology · Symposium

Aristotle bust — AristotlePhilosopher384–322 BCNicomachean Ethics · Politics · Poetics

Marcus Aurelius bust — Marcus AureliusEmperor & Stoic121–180 ADMeditations

Epictetus bust — EpictetusStoic philosopherc. 50–135 ADEnchiridion · Discourses

Seneca bust — SenecaStoic philosopherc. 4 BC – 65 ADLetters from a Stoic · On the Shortness of Life

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Doric columns and stone steps of a Greek temple among cypress trees by the sea

6th–4th century BC

Ancient China

Sun Tzu · The Art of War
Laozi · Tao Te Ching

Softness and strategy: two answers to the same world, from the same land.

Chapter ITao Te ChingLaozi

0:00-0:30

Here follows Instruction in Union. Union, here as always in the Scriptures of India, means union of the individual soul with the Oversoul; of the personal consciousness with the Divine Consciousness, whereby the mortal becomes immortal, and enters the Eternal. Then the Seer comes to consciousness in his proper nature. Egotism is but the perversion of spiritual being. Ambition is the inversion of spiritual power.

2nd century BC – 4th century AD

Ancient India

196 threads on focus, from the man who defined yoga.

Book IYoga SutrasPatañjali

0:00-0:26

For as much as the land beyond the sea, that is to say the Holy Land, that men call the Land of Promission or of Behest, passing all other lands, is the most worthy land, most excellent, and lady and sovereign of all other lands, and is blessed and hallowed of the precious body and blood of our Lord Jesu Christ; in the which land it liked him to take flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, to environ that holy land with his blessed feet.

14th century

Middle Ages

A 14th-century bestseller: the world as travellers dreamed it.

PrologueThe Travels of Sir John MandevilleJohn Mandeville

0:00-0:27

All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or principalities. Principalities are either hereditary, in which the family has been long established; or they are new. The new are either entirely new, as was Milan to Francesco Sforza, or they are, as it were, members annexed to the hereditary state of the prince who has acquired them, as was the kingdom of Naples to that of the King of Spain.

c. 1500

Renaissance

The handbook of power, still on every strategist's shelf.

Chapter IThe PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli

0:00-0:29

The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding. From old Egypt have come the fundamental esoteric and occult teachings which have so strongly influenced the philosophies of all races, nations and peoples, for several thousand years. Egypt, the home of the Pyramids and the Sphinx, was the birthplace of the Hidden Wisdom and Mystic Teachings. From her Secret Doctrine all nations have borrowed. India, Persia, Chaldea, Medea, China, Japan, Assyria, ancient Greece and Rome, and other ancient countries partook liberally at the feast of knowledge.

17th century

Hermetic & Esoteric

Seven Hermetic principles, and the stars read as a language.

Chapter IThe KybalionHermes Trismegistus

0:00-0:31

“When the ears of the student are ready to hear, then cometh the lips to fill them with Wisdom.”

The Kybalion · Three Initiates

The app

Your library, in your pocket.

A reader app made for the classics: listen, read along and come back exactly where you stopped.

Narrated in full
Every word of the original text. Nothing abridged.
Read along
Follow the text word by word while you listen.
Built for listening
Download for offline, pick up where you left off.

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A voice made by AI, made to be trusted.

Classics is narrated by a modern AI voice, in English first. More languages are on the way. Here is what that means.

An AI voice, and we say so

Every narration is generated by a text-to-speech model. No human actor, no pretending.

The whole book, every word

AI lets us narrate complete works instead of abridged excerpts, and add new titles every week.

Checked before it ships

We listen to a pilot of each book and correct names, foreign words and stresses before the full narration.

Hear the voices

Our ambition

Every classic of humanity, in audiobook, done right.

We want the greater part of the world’s classics available to listen to: from Greece to China, the Renaissance to the esoteric. Complete texts, narrated with care, not rushed out. Quality comes first, and the library grows a little every week. Classics only, no bestsellers, no filler, all in the public domain. We start in English and plan to expand to other languages.

It starts here

20: titles at launch, across every era
Weekly: new books after launch
100%: of the text narrated, unabridged

At launch

The IliadHomer
The OdysseyHomer
The RepublicPlato
SymposiumPlato
PhaedrusPlato
ApologyPlato
EuthyphroPlato
CritoPlato
PoeticsAristotle
MeditationsMarcus Aurelius
Bhagavad GitaVyasa
The UpanishadsAnonymous
The DhammapadaThe Buddha
The Yoga Sutras of PatanjaliPatanjali
Tao Te ChingLaozi
InfernoDante Alighieri
The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli
The Practice of the Presence of GodBrother Lawrence
The KybalionThree Initiates
The ProphetKahlil Gibran

See the full catalog →

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Short answers about the AI voice, the text and the catalog. Anything else, write to us.

Create a free account →

01Who narrates the audiobooks?

An AI voice. Every book is narrated by a modern text-to-speech model, not a human actor. We say so up front because you should know what you are pressing play on.

02Why an AI voice?

Because it lets us narrate the whole book, every word, and keep adding titles every week. Classics that never got a quality recording finally get one, and the catalog can grow far faster than studio sessions would allow.

03Does it sound robotic?

Current voices are natural and even-paced, built for long listening. They are not a human performance: no acting, no character voices. We listen to a pilot of every book and fix names and foreign words before publishing.

04Is the text abridged?

No. The narration follows the full original text of the translation. Nothing is summarized or cut.

05Are these books really free to use?

Every work is in the public domain, in a translation that is also out of copyright. We check the status per country before a title goes live.

06Can I read along while I listen?

Yes. The text is highlighted word by word as it is spoken, so you can switch between reading and listening.

07Which languages will be available?

English first: that is where our focus is at launch. We intend to expand to other languages after that, with the same complete-text, quality-first approach.

08Will it be free?

Free to start: every account gets 30 minutes of listening a month. Beyond that you can unlock a single book for a year, or subscribe for the whole catalog. Prices are shown before you pay, and a subscription can be cancelled any time.

09Can I choose the voice?

Yes. We offer both female and male narrators, and you pick the one you prefer. Same complete text, same care, just a different voice for the long listening.

10Where can I listen?

On the web at theclassics.app, with the same account in the app. We start with the US and UK, other countries follow.

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

The Republic · Plato

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