This volume collects all the remaining essays by Seneca not already published in the series [Consolato ad Marciam (Hine), Consolato ad Polybium (Hine), Consolato ad Helviam (Williams), De otio (Williams), Brevitate (Williams), De tranquillitate animi (Fantham), De constantia (Ker), De providentia (Ker), De vita beata (Ker)]. In general, these pieces are intended to edify. They range from consolations to essays on how to achieve happiness or tranquility in the face of a difficult world. Many are quite popular in undergraduate philosophy courses. Fantham's translation is the jewel in the crown."

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 seven 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.