John Henry Newman Box Set

The Idea of a University & Apologia Pro Vita Sua

By: John Henry Newman

Narrated by: Museum Audiobooks cast

John Henry Newman was an influential figure in the Church of England who shocked the Anglican community in 1843 when he joined the Roman Catholic Church. Newman's spiritual autobiography, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, is a classic of English literature. Besides serving as an eloquent response to his critics, it also explores the nature of Christianity and its place in the world. Newman’s work The Idea of a University covers topics such as the character of the academic community, the place of religion and moral values in the university milieu, the cultural role of literature and the relation of religion and science. The book has had a deep and lasting influence on the goals of higher education in the Anglosphere.

Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks

I’m just so confused

Do not buy this book. It is not The Idea of a University. No wonder why I couldn’t find where this man was reading from in my book.

Put this ‘Box Set’ back in the Museum’s vault!

First, there isn't a word of Newman's "Idea of a University" in this recording. Instead, we are treated to what will surely be the quirkiest reading of Chapters 2-4 of "The Rise and Progress of Universities" ever done (though it will likely remain the only one). The male performer of these randomly chosen chapters is so out of his element reading them that at one point he seems to decide to have some fun by rendering one line in a sassy near-falsetto ("Ascend and WALK around the walls...") and reading the Latin passages like Fr. Guido Sarducci. That comes after making so many mistakes reading that I imagine the reading ends with Chapter 4 because he quit. Here are just a few of the tastier gaffes:

'Stadium Generale'
'scene' for Seine
'Lewis' for King Louis
'Patrum' for Pratum
'Saint Jorman' for Saint-Germain
'Academy' for Academe
'a scarce spot' for 'scarce a spot'
'Alma Matter'
'rope-a-gus' for Areopagus
'livey' for Livy
'liberty' for liberality

But I will not pile on this poor reader. Let's move on to the female reader of the properly titled but mysteriously paginated "Apologia Pro Vita Sua." Her harsh Teutonic-British accent is equal to the rigors of the Apologia. Strangely, the reading retains the references to the page numbers of an unidentified edition of the work (which differ from both the 1865 and Ward's 1913 combined 1864-65 edition paginations). Just one more mystery in this most mysterious Stadium Absurdum.