"These authoritative translations consign all other complete collections to the wastebasket." Robert Brustein, "The New Republic" "This is it. No qualifications. Go out and buy it everybody." Kenneth Rexroth, "The Nation" "The translations deliberately avoid the highly wrought and affectedly poetic; their idiom is contemporary....They have life and speed and suppleness of phrase." "Times Education Supplement" "These translations belong to our time. A keen poetic sensibility repeatedly quickens them; and without this inner fire the most academically flawless rendering is dead." Warren D. Anders... View More...
The Grene and Lattimore edition of the Greek tragedies has been among the most widely acclaimed and successful publications of the University of Chicago Press. On the occasion of the Centennial of the University of Chicago and its Press, we take pleasure in reissuing this complete work in a handsome four-volume slipcased edition as well as in redesigned versions of the familiar paperbacks. For the Centennial Edition two of the original translations have been replaced. In the original publication David Grene translated only one of the three Theban plays, "Oedipus the King." Now he has added his... View More...
This anthology includes his best plays and also seeks to give some idea of his range. His forte was farce, and these selections exemplify at least two of his favorite farcical devices: mistaken identity (Amphitryon) and the lecherous old codger (Casina). The Pot of Gold reveals what Plautus could do with the subtler humor to be evoked from character. View More...
Woodruff's work with Peter Meineck makes this text one that is accessible to today's students and could be staged for modern audiences. Line notes printed at the bottom of the page bring a reader further quick assistance. . . . The choral odes as rendered here deserve special notice. After giving a succinct analysis of each in his introduction, Woodruff translates the lyrics into English that is both poetic and comprehensible. . . . Woodruff's rendering of the dialogue moves along easily; these are lines that any contemporary Antigone, Creon or Haemon might speak. Antigone's words on the gods'... View More...
One of the greatest, most moving of all tragedies, Antigone continues to have meaning for us because of its depiction of the struggle between individual conscience and state policy, and its delicate probing of the nature of human suffering. Mr. Rudall's splendid translation brings a new power and speakability to Sophocles' prose. View More...
The youngest of the three great Greek tragedians, following Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides (ca. 484-406 B.C.) is reputed to have written ninety-two plays, nineteen of which survive. The Bacchae, a late play staged posthumously, concerns the cult of Dionysus, god of wine, whose worship hinged largely on orgiastic and frenzied nature rites.When Dionysus (in disguise) attempts to spread his cult among the people (especially the women) of Thebes, their king, Pentheus, imprisons Dionysus and tries to suppress his cult. The king's misguided attempt to thwart the will of a god leads to catastroph... View More...
The youngest of the three great Greek tragedians, following Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides (ca. 484-406 B.C.) is reputed to have written ninety-two plays, nineteen of which survive. The Bacchae, a late play staged posthumously, concerns the cult of Dionysus, god of wine, whose worship hinged largely on orgiastic and frenzied nature rites.When Dionysus (in disguise) attempts to spread his cult among the people (especially the women) of Thebes, their king, Pentheus, imprisons Dionysus and tries to suppress his cult. The king's misguided attempt to thwart the will of a god leads to catastroph... View More...
The celebrated play that draws from historical events in the Norman conquest of England to create a profound portrait of a man's soul--and a transcendent vision of the human spirit From its powerful opening scene, of a naked King Henry II praying at the tomb of Thomas Becket, to the final wrenching act of ultimate self-sacrifice, Jean Anouilh's Becket remains a towering achievement in the history of the theatre. Winner of the Antoinette Perry Award for Best Play of the Season, Anouilh's monumental work--introduced in this edition by the acclaimed writer and critic Andre Aciman--draws from hist... View More...
This line-for-line translation of Aristophanes' best-known comedy features an Introduction on Old Comedy, and the place of Clouds and Aristophanic comedy within it. Footnotes and more detailed endnotes further distinguish this edition of a play famous for its caricature of Socrates and of the "new learning."
This is Edmond Rostand's immortal play in which chivalry and wit, bravery and love are forever captured in the timeless spirit of romance. Set in Louis XIII's reign, it is the moving and exciting drama of one of the finest swordsmen in France, gallant soldier, brilliant wit, tragic poet-lover with the face of a clown. Rostand's extraordinary lyric powers gave birth to a universal hero--Cyrano De Bergerac--and ensured his own reputation as author of one of the best-loved plays in the literature of the stage. This translation, by the American poet Brian Hooker, is nearly as famous as the origina... View More...
This is Edmond Rostand's immortal play in which chivalry and wit, bravery and love are forever captured in the timeless spirit of romance. Set in Louis XIII's reign, it is the moving and exciting drama of one of the finest swordsmen in France, gallant soldier, brilliant wit, tragic poet-lover with the face of a clown. Rostand's extraordinary lyric powers gave birth to a universal hero--Cyrano De Bergerac--and ensured his own reputation as author of one of the best-loved plays in the literature of the stage. This translation, by the American poet Brian Hooker, is nearly as famous as the origina... View More...
Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature n 1969; his literary output of plays, novels, stories and poetry has earned him an uncontested place as one of the greatest writers of our time. Endgame, originally written in French and translated into English by Beckett himself, is considered by many critics to be his greatest single work. A pinnacle of Beckett's characteristic raw minimalism, it is a pure and devastating distillation of the human essence in the face of approaching death. View More...
In nine paperback volumes, the Grene and Lattimore editions offer the most comprehensive selection of the Greek tragedies available in English. Over the years these authoritative, critically acclaimed editions have been the preferred choice of over three million readers for personal libraries and individual study as well as for classroom use. View More...
In nine paperback volumes, the Grene and Lattimore editions offer the most comprehensive selection of the Greek tragedies available in English. Over the years these authoritative, critically acclaimed editions have been the preferred choice of over three million readers for personal libraries and individual study as well as for classroom use. View More...
In nine paperback volumes, the Grene and Lattimore editions offer the most comprehensive selection of the Greek tragedies available in English. Over the years these authoritative, critically acclaimed editions have been the preferred choice of over three million readers for personal libraries and individual study as well as for classroom use. View More...
In nine paperback volumes, the Grene and Lattimore editions offer the most comprehensive selection of the Greek tragedies available in English. Over the years these authoritative, critically acclaimed editions have been the preferred choice of over three million readers for personal libraries and individual study as well as for classroom use. View More...
Goethe's masterpiece and perhaps the greatest work in German literature, Faust has made the legendary German alchemist one of the central myths of the Western world. Here indeed is a monumental Faust, an audacious man boldly wagering with the devil, Mephistopheles, that no magic, sensuality, experience, or knowledge can lead him to a moment he would wish to last forever. Here, in Faust, Part I, the tremendous versatility of Goethe's genius creates some of the most beautiful passages in literature. Here too we experience Goethe's characteristic humor, the excitement and eroticism of the witches... View More...
Here, in a single volume, are four major plays by the first modern playwright, Henrick Ibsen. Ghosts--The startling portrayal of a family destroyed by disease and infidelity. The Wild Duck--A poignant drama of lost illusions. An Enemy Of The People--Ibsen's vigorous attack on public opinion. And A Doll's House--The play that scandalized the Victorian world with its unsparing views of love and marriage, featuring one of the most controversial heroines--and one of the most famous exists--in the literature of the stage. View More...
Here, in a single volume, are four major plays by the first modern playwright, Henrick Ibsen. Ghosts--The startling portrayal of a family destroyed by disease and infidelity. The Wild Duck--A poignant drama of lost illusions. An Enemy Of The People--Ibsen's vigorous attack on public opinion. And A Doll's House--The play that scandalized the Victorian world with its unsparing views of love and marriage, featuring one of the most controversial heroines--and one of the most famous exists--in the literature of the stage. View More...
Here, in a single volume, are four major plays by the first modern playwright, Henrick Ibsen. Ghosts--The startling portrayal of a family destroyed by disease and infidelity. The Wild Duck--A poignant drama of lost illusions. An Enemy Of The People--Ibsen's vigorous attack on public opinion. And A Doll's House--The play that scandalized the Victorian world with its unsparing views of love and marriage, featuring one of the most controversial heroines--and one of the most famous exists--in the literature of the stage. View More...
Second only to Shakespeare as the most staged dramatist in history, Ibsen's still-timely "revolutions of the human mind" continue to resonate with students, teachers, and actors. These four classic plays cover such taboo-breaking but timely themes as family guilt, social hypocrisy, and sexual mores. View More...
In 1890, Henrik Ibsen premiered Hedda Gabler, a play questioning the role of women in Victorian society. Some audiences have viewed Gabler as a woman driven to desperation simply because her world has turned out to be less charmed than she hoped. For others, she is a victim of her times, unwilling to devote herself, as was expected of her, to the duties of home.Jon Robin Baitz has brushed away the cobwebs, and he serves as an ambassador from Ibsen's age to our own, preserving the intensity of the original but translating it into a spare, contemporary idiom. His adaptation provides an opportuni... View More...
The foremost dramatist of his age, Ibsen changed theatre forever with his realistic dialogue and depiction of contemporary social problems. Here are four of his greatest works: Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Lady From the Sea, and John Gabriel Borkman. View More...
