Once again, we have studied the
latest Bookseller Buyer’s Guides and picked out the books on classical themes which
publishers believe will be of interest to the general reader (and added a few
more).
The major highlight is Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls, the Trojan War as seen by Briseis –
another feminised fictional version of the ancient world to add to those
covered in previous notes. We also have Country by Michael Hughes, the Iliad transposed
to Northern Ireland in 1996, which has had strong reviews, Everything Under by Daisy
Johnson, “a weird and wonderful revisioning of Oedipus Rex”, long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and Metamorphica by Zachary Mason, a re-imagining of Ovid. In more popular vein, there are the latest
works from Robert Fabbri, Margaret George, Conn Iggulden, Douglas
Jackson, Anthony Riches and Simon
Scarrow.
Among childrens’ books, we note Lucy Coats with Beasts of
Olympus, Stella Tarakson with Hopeless Heroes (Greek mythology) and Tim Collins with The Long-Lost Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Gladiator (all for
the 7-9s) and, for older children, Know-It-All:
Greek Mythology in the National Geographic ‘Weird but True’ series, Russell Punter’s “action-packed graphic
novel adaptation” of The Odyssey and Isabel and Imogen Greenberg’s Athena: The Story of a Goddess. There are also Nick Pierce’s “Starters” books on Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece,
with bite-sized text, timelines, quizzes and “can you find?”
The non-fiction highlight is Guy de la Bedoyere’s Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome
(of the Julio-Claudian dynasty). We
also have Tony Spawforth’s The Story of Greece and Rome, David Stuttard’s Nemesis : Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens, Robin Waterfield’s Olympia:
the Story of the Ancient Olympic Games, Peter Jones with Memento Mori
: What the Romans Can Tell Us About Old Age and Death, Fred Naiden with Soldier,
Priest and God: A Life of Alexander the Great (which explores his personal
religion), Jeremiah McColl with Clan Fabius, Defenders of Rome (the
history of the Fabii Maximi) and Richard
Hingley with Londinium: A Biography: Roman
London from its Origins to the Fifth Century.
In the category of “reception”, we
note Charlotte Higgins’ Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths,
which starts with the classical poets and then explores widely among later
gardens, writers and artists. Lloyd
Llewellyn-Jones has Designs on the
Past, how Hollywood Created the Ancient World from 1916-1966, lavishly
illustrated. Adrienne Mayor offers Gods
and Robots: Myths, Machines and Ancient Dreams of Technology and James M Russell has Plato’s Alarm Clock
and Other Amazing Ancient Inventions. Donna Zuckerberg’s Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age
exposes the way in which the American “Alt-Right” cites classical texts to
support their claims.
Among books for students we note Oliver Taplin’s new translation of the Oresteia, with a clutch of critical
essays, Simon Pulleyn’s new edition
of Homer’s Odyssey Book 1, and a set
of Bloomsbury Ancient Comedy Companions - Aristophanes:
Peace edited by Ian C Storey, Plautus:
Casina by David Christenson,
and Terence: Andria by Sander M Goldberg. The
latest Cambridge Green and Yellows include Homer:
Iliad Book XVIII from Richard
Rutherford and Xenophon: Anabasis Book
III from Luuk Huitink and Tim Rood. The latest Loebs include
Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica,
edited by Neil Hopkinson, the final
volume of their Hippocrates, edited by Paul
Potter, and Vol XI of their Livy, edited by John Yardley. There are new
translations of Cicero’s De Amicitia
from Philip Freeman and Epictetus’ Enchiridion (and other works) from Anthony Long. Andrew
Stumpf offers Ancient Philosophy: A
Companion to the Core Readings, Michael
Moore has Classical Philosophy in a
Nutshell and there is also the first English translation of Martin Heidegger’s 1943/4 lectures on
Heraclitus.
Philip
Hooker is the Hon. Treasurer of the Classical Association, and writes regularly
for the CA Blog on Classics in the Media.
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