Leviathan
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season508 pages, about 10 hours: the length of 1.6 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbOne reader reports stopping at the end of Part One after finding the opening chapters on sense and matter hardest.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 10 reviews from critics and book blogs, none credit the plot and 7 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne reader came to it after Locke and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, on the shelf at 329 pages, and finds Hobbes answering Aristotle.
The case for it
on the style
“The effect is increased by an admirable style, sententious and weighty, terse and lucid in the highest degree, and enlivened by shrewd strokes of wit and humour. In spite of occasional archaisms, the ‘Leviathan’ is a model of vigorous exposition, unsurpassed in the language.”
Leslie Stephen · Dictionary of National Biography, 1891 on the theology chapters
“fascinating to read Hobbes’ detailed reflections on theological concepts such as salvation”
Hilarius Bogbinder · Philosophy Now, 2024 on first principles
“he takes great care to work his argument up from basic principles and definitions”
a book blog on Book 1
“The whole of Book 1 is laid out systematically”
a book blog
The case against
on Books III and IV
“they read Books I and II, and leave Books III and IV aside”
Arash Abizadeh · Five Books, 2021 on the second half
“the second half of the book gets quite a bit less attention”
a book blog on the Bible readings
“But he frequently glosses over any evidence that contradicts his view.”
a book blog on the Clarendon edition
“But the edition is not user-friendly.”
Adrian Blau · BlauBlog, 2013
