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Hardship and Happiness
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and advisor to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in eight accessible volumes. Edited by Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, this engaging collection helps restore Seneca—whose works have been highly praised by modern authors from Desiderius Erasmus to Ralph Waldo Emerson—to his rightful place among the classical writers most widely studied in the humanities.
Hardship and Happiness collects a range of essays intended to instruct, from consolations—works that offer comfort to someone who has suffered a personal loss—to pieces on how to achieve happiness or tranquility in the face of a difficult world. Expertly translated, the essays will be read and used by undergraduate philosophy students and experienced scholars alike.
Hardship and Happiness collects a range of essays intended to instruct, from consolations—works that offer comfort to someone who has suffered a personal loss—to pieces on how to achieve happiness or tranquility in the face of a difficult world. Expertly translated, the essays will be read and used by undergraduate philosophy students and experienced scholars alike.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 64
190 people are currently reading
1299 people want to read
About the author
Seneca
2,727 books3,940 followersLucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger); ca. 4 BC – 65 AD) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero, who later forced him to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to have him assassinated.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 25, 2023
What need is there to shed tears over life’s individual stages? For the whole of life requires tears.
Started this one just before my brother’s funeral following his untimely, accidental, and utterly pointless death. It had been high up in my TBR list, so I went in for a long wade in the cold, unadorned stoicism fountain at the worst point in my life to date.
It was foolish to clutch at philosophy at such a time, when nothing at all can help make sense of the senseless randomness of this shitty, fucking existence that refuses to let me go just yet. I’ve leaned stoic all my life, but Seneca was largely lost on me.
Despite all that, this here’s some solid advice.
Started this one just before my brother’s funeral following his untimely, accidental, and utterly pointless death. It had been high up in my TBR list, so I went in for a long wade in the cold, unadorned stoicism fountain at the worst point in my life to date.
It was foolish to clutch at philosophy at such a time, when nothing at all can help make sense of the senseless randomness of this shitty, fucking existence that refuses to let me go just yet. I’ve leaned stoic all my life, but Seneca was largely lost on me.
Despite all that, this here’s some solid advice.
September 13, 2021
Seneca promotes happiness, reason, nature but ties them to self-denial, natural law, God. No wonder Christians try to claim him.
March 18, 2022
I can't believe all these years I have somehow managed to read no Stoic philosophy until now. Couldn't have picked a better text/translation/edition to start. Each essay starts with an explanation of the historical context, translation choices, etc. Reading Seneca I often found myself nodding my head along, laughing, tearing up, and at times totally understanding why some of his contemporaries criticized him as a hypocrite. Maybe that's inevitable when you're doing applied ethics because life is paradoxical. I don't know I'd want to live my life according to Stoic values but I do feel wiser having read it. My favorite essay was "On the Shortness of Life" which can be summarized as "life isn't too short people just waste their time". You have to appreciate that degree of candor.
December 8, 2021
Solid translation and intros. Includes some of seneca's more interesting work
March 2, 2025
Solid academic presentation of familiar Seneca writings.
January 28, 2024
Anthology of the following essays by Seneca, translated into modern English.
Consolation to Marcia (HARRY M. HINE, translator)
Consolation to Helvia (GARETH D. WILLIAMS, transl.)
Consolation to Polybius (HARRY M. HINE, transl.)
On the Shortness of Life (GARETH D. WILLIAMS, transl.)
On the Constancy of the Wise Person (JAMES KER, transl.)
On Tranquility of Mind (ELAINE FANTHAM, transl.)
On Leisure (GARETH D. WILLIAMS, transl.)
On the Happy Life (JAMES KER, transl.)
On Providence (JAMES KER, transl.)
I found this anthology contained excellent new translations, and each translator provided an introduction to each essay explaining to whom the essay was addressed, the purpose of the writing and the literary devices and tools of rhetoric used, as well as any historical and political context useful to the reader or clarification of difficult passages- all of which was a very beneficial addition to the text.
I highly recommend this Seneca anthology for anyone interested in a deep dive into the philosophy of Stoicism (and not the watered down commercially popular life-hack "Stoicism" that has become so recently popular.)
PG for dense philosophical topics, including slavery, grief, and suicide. Translated into English from the ancient Roman. No sex, language, or graphic violence.
Consolation to Marcia (HARRY M. HINE, translator)
Consolation to Helvia (GARETH D. WILLIAMS, transl.)
Consolation to Polybius (HARRY M. HINE, transl.)
On the Shortness of Life (GARETH D. WILLIAMS, transl.)
On the Constancy of the Wise Person (JAMES KER, transl.)
On Tranquility of Mind (ELAINE FANTHAM, transl.)
On Leisure (GARETH D. WILLIAMS, transl.)
On the Happy Life (JAMES KER, transl.)
On Providence (JAMES KER, transl.)
I found this anthology contained excellent new translations, and each translator provided an introduction to each essay explaining to whom the essay was addressed, the purpose of the writing and the literary devices and tools of rhetoric used, as well as any historical and political context useful to the reader or clarification of difficult passages- all of which was a very beneficial addition to the text.
I highly recommend this Seneca anthology for anyone interested in a deep dive into the philosophy of Stoicism (and not the watered down commercially popular life-hack "Stoicism" that has become so recently popular.)
PG for dense philosophical topics, including slavery, grief, and suicide. Translated into English from the ancient Roman. No sex, language, or graphic violence.
February 21, 2016
Some good essays that are easy to read thanks to great translations. I also liked the introductory info about Seneca and the world he lived in, plus notes on his influence. I thought the historical criticism of him being hypocritical was interesting. He was rich, active in politics, and held an important position, but spoke against those things a lot. His response to the criticism was one of my favorite quotes: "I am not wise, and, just to nourish your ill will: I will not be wise. Demand from me, then, not that I am equal to the best but that I am better than the bad. It is enough for me to subtract something from my vices each day and to chastise my own mistakes."
April 19, 2021
On losing a loved one:
"it is hard to lose a young man whom you have raised, just when he was beginning to lend help and distinction to his mother and father. Who would deny it is hard? But it is human. You were born for this, to suffer loss, to perish, to hope and to fear, to upset others and yourself, to dread death yet also desire it, and, worst of all, never to understand your true condition"
woof, lots of gems like this to be found in this collection of letters from Seneca to his friends.
11/10 will re read
"it is hard to lose a young man whom you have raised, just when he was beginning to lend help and distinction to his mother and father. Who would deny it is hard? But it is human. You were born for this, to suffer loss, to perish, to hope and to fear, to upset others and yourself, to dread death yet also desire it, and, worst of all, never to understand your true condition"
woof, lots of gems like this to be found in this collection of letters from Seneca to his friends.
11/10 will re read
January 4, 2024
While there is a lot of extraneous content, there are so many high-quality quotes and ideas from Seneca.
This book also contains a lot of Seneca's own self-defense to claims he is hypocritical. He expounds on the need to live a life of hardship, yet he was one of the most wealthy men alive at the time. He strongly pushes against this claim, defending the need of anyone and everyone to advance the goodness of virtue.
This book also contains a lot of Seneca's own self-defense to claims he is hypocritical. He expounds on the need to live a life of hardship, yet he was one of the most wealthy men alive at the time. He strongly pushes against this claim, defending the need of anyone and everyone to advance the goodness of virtue.
March 2, 2026
Really, what can a Stoic philosopher from almost 2000 years ago teach us moderns about...well, anything? Different eras, different cultures, and obviously different languages. Thousands of years...doesn’t that mean we’ve evolved massively since then? Our scientific achievements have led to continent spanning empires, a wealth of leisure activities for pampered elites, and even heated baths—wait, didn’t the Roman Empire have all this already? Hold on, perhaps there are things we have in common culturally and perhaps someone from that era such as one of its most famous and then infamous and then famous again man of wisdom may have messages of caring, of compassion, and yes of hardship and also happiness that can stand the test of time.
To put it succinctly: I’ll take a “hot take” from Seneca, the Younger over any of the inspirational clips and memes that infect society today. Wouldn’t anyone?
It truly is amazing that if you remove the places and names from Hardship & Happiness, what remains is timeless advice. Stoicism may not be the end-all be-all and one can poke holes in it and most any philosophical system, but Seneca’s twist on it and how to turn bad news into nothingburgers should not be discounted. What’s more, the concepts of an afterlife were seen by some at least to be nothing more than myths best disregarded:
But just when you want to paint Seneca as an early ‘enlightened’ agnostic, we see there are always more sides to the coin:
This was my first encounter with Seneca’s original writings and while it may have been the penultimate book in the series, I’ve a feeling anyone can read these in any order. The letters here are, as noted, timeless. It’s almost eerie and at times depressing how little the world has changed in the 1950 years or so since ink on parchment was left to dry. The same hardships are still experienced by many, bad things still seem to happen to good people, human anxiety remains a condition so very human yet so uncannily eternal.
For a lay reader, this is not a challenging endevour. Introductions and footnotes by the translators provide a ton of background information and while name-dropping is pretty common, those citations along with even a decent amount of Pax Romana and Greek historical knowledge is more than enough to adequately feel at home here. Some people may turn to the Bible for comfort and while one can’t deny its place in the canon of humanity, Seneca’s output here especially in the final essay of the book, ‘On Providence’, may provide more solace than even the most powerful of Psalms.
If you want another look at how to live a good life and want it from a unique philosopher whose output was given a fantastic translation (yes, while there may be public domain versions of these letters out there, don’t say I didn’t warn if you if you take that route…), Hardship and Happiness is probably as good as an entryway into Seneca studies as any other book in the series. Is Stoicism for everyone? Doubtful, but it works for Seneca due to his way of softening some of it rough edges to take into account that attaining virtue for most is a fraught, challenging road.
To put it succinctly: I’ll take a “hot take” from Seneca, the Younger over any of the inspirational clips and memes that infect society today. Wouldn’t anyone?
It truly is amazing that if you remove the places and names from Hardship & Happiness, what remains is timeless advice. Stoicism may not be the end-all be-all and one can poke holes in it and most any philosophical system, but Seneca’s twist on it and how to turn bad news into nothingburgers should not be discounted. What’s more, the concepts of an afterlife were seen by some at least to be nothing more than myths best disregarded:
“You must realize that a dead person is not afflicted by any sufferings, that the things that make the underworld seem terrifying are just myths, that no darkness looms over the dead, no prison, no rivers blazing with fire, no river of Oblivion, no law courts and defendants, nor in that state of utter freedom are there tyrants all over again. Poets have indulged in these fantasies and have hounded us with empty terrors.” (page 26, eBook)
But just when you want to paint Seneca as an early ‘enlightened’ agnostic, we see there are always more sides to the coin:
“From any point on earth you raise your eyes to the heavens on an equal basis: there is always the same distance between all things divine and all things human.” (page 56)
This was my first encounter with Seneca’s original writings and while it may have been the penultimate book in the series, I’ve a feeling anyone can read these in any order. The letters here are, as noted, timeless. It’s almost eerie and at times depressing how little the world has changed in the 1950 years or so since ink on parchment was left to dry. The same hardships are still experienced by many, bad things still seem to happen to good people, human anxiety remains a condition so very human yet so uncannily eternal.
For a lay reader, this is not a challenging endevour. Introductions and footnotes by the translators provide a ton of background information and while name-dropping is pretty common, those citations along with even a decent amount of Pax Romana and Greek historical knowledge is more than enough to adequately feel at home here. Some people may turn to the Bible for comfort and while one can’t deny its place in the canon of humanity, Seneca’s output here especially in the final essay of the book, ‘On Providence’, may provide more solace than even the most powerful of Psalms.
If you want another look at how to live a good life and want it from a unique philosopher whose output was given a fantastic translation (yes, while there may be public domain versions of these letters out there, don’t say I didn’t warn if you if you take that route…), Hardship and Happiness is probably as good as an entryway into Seneca studies as any other book in the series. Is Stoicism for everyone? Doubtful, but it works for Seneca due to his way of softening some of it rough edges to take into account that attaining virtue for most is a fraught, challenging road.
January 22, 2020
I'm very glad that the University of Chicago Press has come out with wonderful new translations of Seneca's work. He's not my favorite Stoic - his writing is too flowery and extended for me (especially compared with that of Epictetus, who *us* my favorite Stoic), but that aside, his style is readable, elegant, and filled without sage advice.
November 13, 2025
One of the two best books of Stoic thought I've ever read, along with P.E. Matheson's Oxford-published edition of Epictetus's Discourses and Manual. Excellent translation and an essential selection of writings. Each individual work is accessible and engaging, and a handful of them are remarkable gems of insight. Like Epictetus, Seneca is sometimes quite funny, too (really!).
December 28, 2018
One must read.
February 12, 2023
Very engaging & practically applicable.
June 14, 2025
Don’t skip the introductions!
November 20, 2025
life changing book. seneca ties everything to reason.
January 25, 2026
On the shortness of life is the best
January 29, 2015
These are absolutely beautiful translations of Seneca's dialogues. They come with notes and introductions presenting the arguments and textual problems present in the dialogues. The translators themselves are formidable Classicists, who also turn out to be sublime writers. If you want to get the most out of Seneca - read this series!
January 9, 2025
UGA (Instructor): Introduction to Philosophy
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews