In the last year of my undergraduate degree, I spent months reading about classical music and the form of the symphony, mostly for pleasure. It culminated with a deep study on Beethoven's third Symphony, the Eroica (the hero).
While there are so many versions to listen to, It's hard to go wrong with Leonard Bernstein's rendition:
I developed a listening guide to this symphony based on of musical history, accounts of Beethoven's life, and notions of the hero's journey. You can view my paper here.