Menander: Plays & Fragments ; Theophrastus: Characters
by Theophrastus, Menander, Philip Vellacott (Translator)
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Characters. Much better than I thought it would be. Very funny. I had to take my specs off so I could wipe my eyes. Thirty satirical sketches of undesirable personality types, all delivered though gritted teeth in a tone of disbelief. Reminded me of the sort of role John Cleese might play. Some of the things Theophrastus describes are so specific I’m sure many of these characters would have been recognised by their fellow Athenians at the time. Also very interesting for the details of daily life that you just don’t get in more formal literary works.
The pairing with Menander is nice as you have teacher and pupil in the same volume. I’ve not read this translation as I read a different one some time go. Vellacott’s translations of show more Euripides are superb. Menander is worth reading if you’re interested in the history of the theatre.
Both authors have been given the Penguin Classics treatment usual at the time and smoothed out of popular consumption. Characters translates just the Ancient Greek text, but not the Byzantine interpolations that appear in the manuscripts. According to the introduction, Dyskolos was done for a radio production and some liberties have been taken with the allocation of lines. The 2nd edition (1973) has more Menander than had been discovered when the first edition came out. show less
The pairing with Menander is nice as you have teacher and pupil in the same volume. I’ve not read this translation as I read a different one some time go. Vellacott’s translations of show more Euripides are superb. Menander is worth reading if you’re interested in the history of the theatre.
Both authors have been given the Penguin Classics treatment usual at the time and smoothed out of popular consumption. Characters translates just the Ancient Greek text, but not the Byzantine interpolations that appear in the manuscripts. According to the introduction, Dyskolos was done for a radio production and some liberties have been taken with the allocation of lines. The 2nd edition (1973) has more Menander than had been discovered when the first edition came out. show less
Edition: // Descr: 247 p. 18.5 cm. // Series: The Penguin Classics Call No. { 882 M52.10 1 } Series Edited by Betty Radice and Robert Baldick Translated by Philip Vellacott. // //
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The late fourth century b.c. gave rise to New Comedy---a comedy of manners that was more refined and lacked the robustness of Old Comedy. Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Greek playwright Menander's plays were known only through adaptations and translations made by the Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence and by the comments of show more Ovid and Pliny. Menander wrote approximately 100 plays, and the few extant in the Greek text were found on papyrus rolls in the rubbish heaps of Roman Egypt. However, "The Dyskolos," the first complete Menander New Comedy to be discovered intact, turned up on papyrus in a private Swiss collection. His comedies are skillfully constructed, his characters well delineated, his diction excellent, and his themes mostly the trials and tribulations of young love with conventional solutions. Menander was born and died in Athens, presumably a member of the upper class, and studied under the philosopher-scientist Theophrastus, the successor of Aristotle. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Menander: Plays & Fragments ; Theophrastus: Characters
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- Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 882.01 — Literature & rhetoric Classical & modern Greek literatures Classical Greek dramatic poetry and drama standard subdivisions; collections; history, description, critical appraisal; Specific periods Ancient period to ca. 499
- LCC
- PA4246 .E4 — Language and Literature Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature Greek literature Individual authors
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