by
Philip Hooker
Once again, we have picked out
the classical books featured in the latest Bookseller
Buyer’s Guide (and some others noted elsewhere): these are the books which
publishers think will interest the general reader.
The highlighted work is Daniel Mendelsohn’s An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic; the cultural critic teaches classics
at Bard College and this is the story of how his father, age 81, came to his Odyssey course and later joined him in
the Mediterranean to follow Odysseus’ footsteps. It is in the same genre as Ann Patty’s Living with a Dead Language and Peter Stothard’s The Senecans
(both now in paperback): how study of the classics can enrich contemporary
lives. We also note Bijam Omrani’s Caesar’s Footprints:
Journeys to Roman Gaul, and the latest Frederic
Raphael: Antiquity Matters. An
earlier generation is explored by Yopie Prins
in Ladies’ Greek, which describes how
young college women in the UK and US translated and produced versions of Greek
Tragedy from the 1880s; a remarkable feat of reception. And Edith
Hamilton, author of by far the most influential introductions to the
ancient world: The Greek Way (1930)
and The Roman Way (1932), is
re-printed again, though these must by now be seen as period pieces.
In the category of erudite light entertainment, we
have the latest works from Philip
Matyszak: 24 Hours in Ancient Rome: A day in the Life of the People Who Lived
There, featuring 24 characters, and Paul
Chrystal: How to be a Roman: A day in
the Life of a Roman Family, as well as Eleanor
Dickey’s Stories of Daily Life from
the Roman World: Extracts from the Ancient
Colloquia, a more serious textbook. The latest Peter Jones is Quid pro Quo,
all about the Latin roots of the English language. In fiction, there are new historical novels
from Douglas Jackson, Ben Kane and Anthony Riches, and new historical
crime writer Annelise Friesenbruch
with Rivals of the Republic, in which
Hortensia, daughter of Rome’s leading orator, investigates the murder of a Vestal
Virgin in 70BC. More literary is Khamla
Shamsie with Home Fire,
long-listed for the Booker prize, a contemporary re-imagining of Antigone.
Scholarly works include Kathryn Tempest’s Brutus the Noble Conspirator, Jennifer
Roberts with The Plague of War:
Athens, Sparta and the Struggle for Ancient Greece, Vincent Azoulay with The Tyrant
Slayers of Ancient Athens: A Tale of Two Statues, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, edited by Esther Eidinow and Julia Kindt, and two new Cambridge Companions on the writings of
Julius Caesar and on the Age of Nero.
There are two new accounts of the Fall of the Roman Empire: The Darkening Age by Catherine Nixey, who cites the
destructive effects of a radical new religion – Christianity - and The Fall of Rome: Climate, Disease and the End
of Empire by Kyle Harper. And there are three accounts of other
groups: In Search of the Phoenicians by Josephine Crawley Quinn, who questions whether they were really a
coherent nation; Scythians: Warriors of
Ancient Siberia by St. John Simpson,
which ties in with the British Museum exhibition commencing in September; and Amazons: The Real Warrior Women of the
Ancient World, by John Man,
which ties in with Wonder Woman.
There are several new texts in
translation. Penguin has an anthology of
ancient historiography – Dionysius, Plutarch, Lucian and more - translated by John Marincola, and another of ancient
rhetoric from Aristotle to Philostratus, translated by Thomas Habinek, as well as Alicia
Stallings’ version of Hesiod’s Works and Days. OUP World Classics recently added Josephus’ The Jewish War in a version by
Martin Hammond. The latest Loebs are Apuleius’ Apologia and other works and Aelius Aristides’ Orations.
Peter Rhodes has updated his version of
The Athenian Constitution: Written in the
School of Aristotle. The latest
Cambridge Green and Yellow is Stephen
Harrison’s edition of Horace: Odes
Book 2. More literary works include David Perry’s version of the Aeneid, C P Vlieland’s Juvenal Revisited,
and Bad Kid Catullus, a set of modern
crowd-sourced versions edited by Jon
Stone. Meanwhile there is Emily Wilson’s version of The Odyssey, which follows Caroline Alexander’s version of The Iliad, both said to be the first
done by women.
Among works for children, the
runaway best seller is the latest Rick
Riordan: The Dark Prophecy, the
second volume of The Trials of Apollo. We also have the latest Caroline Lawrence: Death in
the Arena, and the latest Saviour
Pirotta: Secret of the Oracle, as
well as Courtney Carbone’s OMG
Classics: Greek Gods, a tale told in
texts. For younger readers, there are Hugh Lupton’s Greek Myths: Three Heroic Tales and The Adventures of Odysseus, Terry
Deary’s four sets of Roman Tales
and Marcia Williams’ Greek Myths.
