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Alexander of Macedon Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Harold Lamb (Author), Charlton Griffin (Narrator), Audio Connoisseur (Publisher)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 26 ratings
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The enigma of Alexander the Great has remained with us for 2,300 years. In spite of the best efforts of historians, Alexander is no less a mystery to us now than he probably was during his own lifetime. There was no one like him before or since. In the pages of Harold Lamb's intriguing Alexander of Macedon, we find some of the answers to the great riddle of his character. Lamb, author of the magnificent Hannibal: One Man Against Rome, has once more pushed the envelope of historical writing to give us a glimpse of what Alexander might really have been like.

Using as his principle source material the Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian, Lamb has cobbled together not only a straightforward retelling of the exciting adventures of the Macedonian, but he has also deftly reconstructed those hidden events of which history is silent. The result is a remarkable portrait of a young man thrust into the leadership of a semi-barbarous Greek people. This is the story of that whirlwind of physical and mental energy which was to explode across the surface of the known world. In the end, it was the civilization of the East which captured Alexander. His untimely death a mere dozen years after his accession to power robbed mankind of one of the most compelling visionaries who ever lived.

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  1. Listening Length
    14 hours and 58 minutes
  2. Author
    Harold Lamb
  3. Narrator
    Charlton Griffin
  4. Audible release date
    April 15, 2005
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Audio Connoisseur
  7. ASIN
    B0009FJKD4
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 14 hours and 58 minutes
Author Harold Lamb
Narrator Charlton Griffin
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date April 15, 2005
Publisher Audio Connoisseur
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0009FJKD4
Best Sellers Rank #159,786 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#601 in Ancient History (Audible Books & Originals)
#4,174 in Ancient Civilizations

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4.5 out of 5 stars
26 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • M. Robertson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Harold Lamb the Great
    Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    Harold Lamb portrays Alexander the Great realistically, offering possible explanations of Alexander's goals and driving obsessions. He also summarizes some of the legends that have risen over time, and considers the idea that Alexander slowly slipped into a condition of insanity, or extremely acute paranoia. This can be viewed as a loosely written reference meant more for pleasure and entertainment than scholarly appeal, with a large dose of Lamb's signature personalism and in-depth dramatics. View it as an adventure story that follows a historical guideline. It is not historical fiction, though minor details are certainly embellished. The overall story follows history as Harold Lamb understood it. In my opinion, Lamb was some kind of genius who was extremely gifted at storytelling. He explains with detail Alexander's upbringing and many lifetime achievements, and tries to guess at some of the modern locations of the numerous cities built under Alexander's "renaissance" of the east. He also analyzes some of the darker actions of Alexander, including the execution of some of his top generals and the break-away from, and disdain for, the culture of his own people. This is the saga of a man with incredible curiousity, lifelong dreams, overpowering thirst for knowledge and culture, and superior miliatary strategy at the time, who attempted world conquest, similar to his predecessor Cyrus the Great (or Kurush).
    9 people found this helpful
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  • JS
    4.0 out of 5 stars "Only the man in the saddle is free"
    Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2016
    This book tells the story of a great journey into the unknown, conceived by a unique historical man - Alexander the Great (356 - 323 B.C.)

    Harold Lamb's "Alexander of Macedon" reads as a grand Hollywood blockbuster combined with Shakespearean drama. Due to the time period c 300 BC, the author understandably relies on story telling, mythology, and gap filling, but there's a great deal of factual detail in descriptions of people, events and adventures. You meet intriguing characters - Olympias (Alexander's mother), Aristotle (Alexander's tutor), Demosthenes (a philosopher), Ptolemy (friend and general), Phillip of Macedon (Alexander's father) and others. The book describes the conquests and battles of Tyre, Issis, Arbela etc as well as great foes from opposing forces.

    The author's descriptions of Alexander make him more human than God - they personalise him. It's interesting to note his transformation from the shy, studious non-violent boy to the belligerent conqueror. Although we see that he becomes rash and impulsive, you get the sense that he retains shrewdness in his actions borne out of his early nature, prolific reading and experience.

    - "The heroes have to pay the price for great deeds by suffering"..
    - "Only the man in the saddle is free. The man in the house is a prisoner".
    - "Sir, if there is one thing above all others a successful man should know, it is when to stop." (said to Alexander by Coenus, a subordinate commander).

    Listening to this as an audio book, it was occasionally hard to place events, and easy to get lost in the narrative. I suggest that the reader (or listener) either read the print format, or have a good grasp of the history and cultures of the time - else you may find yourself confused. Otherwise, it was an informative re-telling of a great true story.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Jay Nova
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Perfect condition
    One person found this helpful
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  • Grace Warner
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    good
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  • Raymond Palentchar
    3.0 out of 5 stars Good Biography
    Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This is a fine introductory biography of a great military genius. There was no one like Alexander, who, incredibly, never lost a battle.
    When he dies at age 32, and in spite of some character flaws, you still feel you would have liked to have met him.
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  • Tara A. Lawrence-Stuart
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of my first Alexander books at age 16
    Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2018
    As a junior in high school, Alexander was assigned to me so I haunted the school library and found Plutarch's Lives, Alexander by John Gunther for young readers, and stumbled on Harold Lamb's book. That was in the early fifties. I received an A on my paper and believe it was because of Lamb's book, which was recent. Now there are probably a thousand books about the great conqueror and this one is still the one I re-read. Harold Lamb brought Alexander (among other conquerors) to life. Intimidated as a boy and mocked by his father Philip, even after the taming of Bucephalos, he was a thin-skinned youth with a domineering and overprotective mother Olympias. Despite that flaw, he learned with Philip, Ptolemy and Hephaistion to develop into Alexander the Great. Artfully told, convincingly and accurately reported, this is also an exciting adventure story. That it contains an index qualifies it as a bona fide biography and Lamb doesn't hide his gift of putting some of his own words in the characters' mouths. In the author's own words under NOTES at the end, Lamb writes: "...So this book is a re-creation from imagination only in the sense that details were pieced together from different sources on the scene itself, in an attempt to form a whole." In my opinion, even now at age eighty, I fully concur with him after wearing out my third copy and marginal notes. Harold Lamb was a man who knew his subjects because he researched even "the knowledge then possessed by of the Greeks, Persians, Egyptians Syrians and other peoples."

    Alexander's soul mate Hephaistion is treated as such, and I think rightly so. In the ancient works, such as Arrian's Anabasis, Quintus Curtius, and in earlier modern books such as Sir William Tarn, there was no mention of any other kind of relationship. I would review Mary Renault's The Nature of Alexander, which I have read, for his loving relationship with his general and childhood companion. In Alexander's day and before, men loved other men as freely and unashamedly as they did women. When Harold Lamb wrote this book, only a few modern books were available and he researched the ancient Hellenistic writings. It doesn't detract from Alexander's story originally published by this author in 1946.
    7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    very good
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