Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Mainten..., Robert M. Pirsig
Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Mainten..., Robert M. Pirsig
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Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance®

Author: Robert M. Pirsig, Peter Flannery

Narrator: James Purefoy, Full Cast

Unabridged: 1 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/01/2012


Synopsis

An odyssey into life’s challenging questions during an unforgettable summer motorcycle trip

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance became an instant bestseller upon its publication in 1974. A powerful examination of how we live, as well as a breath-taking meditation on how to live better, it tells the epic story of a father and son’s motorcycle trip across America’s Northwest in the 1960s.

Pirsig’s modern classic transformed a generation and continues to inspire millions of readers today. Dramatised for radio for the first time by Peter Flannery (Our Friends in the North, George Gently, The Devil’s Whore), this fantastic full-cast production stars James Purefoy (Rome, Injustice, Ironclad) and adds a new and original dimension to an iconic work. Following a father and his young son on their cross-country summer adventure from Minnesota to California, it is a story of love, fear, growth, discovery and acceptance. Both personal and philosophical, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is also a compelling study of relationships, values, enlightenment and meaning.

The maintenance of the motorcycle throughout the journey illustrates how to unify the cold, rational realm of technology with the warm, imaginative realm of artistry. Resonating with the confusions and the wonders of existence, the narrator wrestles with some of the most important philosophical questions of the 20th century. His need to also reconcile his past and present selves drives him and his son forward, to a point where all is either lost or won on the Chautauqua spiritual journey.

This audio edition includes a bonus 10 minutes of material that was not broadcast on the radio.

NB: the recording contains strong language.

Production credits
Author: Robert M. Pirsig
Dramatist: Peter Flannery
Original music: Jon Nicholls
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Melanie Harris

A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.

© 2012 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P) 2012 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About Robert M. Pirsig

Robert M. Pirsig (1928-2017) was born in Minneapolis. He studied chemistry, philosophy, and journalism at the University of Minnesota and attended Benares Hindu University in India, where he studied Oriental philosophy. His 1974 book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values was an immediate phenomenon which first published and continues to be bestseller.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on November 24, 2019

Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: "I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the left grip of the cycle, that it is eight-thirty in the morning." I have read Zen probably four or five times. The clinical precision of the author is apparent in all the detail here ("......more

Goodreads review by Natasha on January 04, 2015

I just re-read this book and HAD to annotate it because it sent my head swimming. I'd studied quite a lot of philosophy since I read it a year and a half ago and so the philosophies didn't go over my head this time. First, I must say if you find the narrator off-putting, rest assured that the protago......more

Goodreads review by Mason on March 21, 2008

I must start by saying that this is one of my favorite books ever. Although it is deep and complicated and takes a lot of focus to read, I feel that there are a lot of great messages here in the author’s search for Quality. This was my second time reading this book, and I liked it more this time. In......more

Goodreads review by William2 on August 01, 2020

Brilliant! Pirsig might be something of an American Montaigne, producing readable philosophy with a minimum of abtractions. That’s a gift. After undergoing electro-convulsive therapy 28 times, Pirsig, in this book, gives his formerly insane self a doppelgänger-like alter-ego, Phaedrus, and bravely t......more

Goodreads review by Riku on January 19, 2014

Plato's Phaedrus said, "And what is written well and what is written badly...need we ask Lysias or any other poet or orator who ever wrote or will write either a political or other work, in meter or out of meter, poet or prose writer, to teach us this?" Modern Phaedrus said, “And what is good, Phaed......more