Classic poetry / poems

Book SynopsisOvid''s Fasti, his poem on the Roman calendar, became especially influential during the fifteenth century as a guide to classical Roman culture. Ovid''s treatment of mythological and astronomical lore, his investigation of anniversaries and customs, and his charting of monuments and history offered humanist poets and intellectuals an abundance of material to unravel. They could identify with Ovid as vates operosus, or hard-working seer-poet, suggesting both researcher and inspired authority. Angela Fritsen''s Antiquarian Voices:The Roman Academy and the Commentary Tradition on Ovid''s Fasti offers the first study of the Renaissance exegesis and imitation of Ovid as antiquarian. Fritsen analyzes the Fasti commentaries by Paolo Marsi (1440-1484) and Antonio Costanzi (1436-1490) as well as the connections between the two works. It situates Ovidian Fasti studies in the Roman Academy under the mentorship of Pomponio Leto. Nowhere c

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Book SynopsisDating from around the 8th century BC, The Iliad is a prime example of an epic narrative poem and is one of Western literature''s oldest works. It tells the story of the weeks during the Trojan war when King Agamemnon and the hero warrior Achilles were at loggerheads. With dramatic flashbacks to previous events during the war and, allusions to what is to come, The Iliad provides an almost complete overview of the events of the Trojan War. Written originally in Homeric Greek, it has been translated numerous times and into many different languages.This edition features a striking graphic cover design, bringing the classic work to new readers.

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Book SynopsisA child’s life should be full of poems, rhymes and songs, and Poems of Childhood is a celebration of that. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by acclaimed children's writer, Michael Morpurgo.Poems of Childhood combines the best of classic children’s poetry into one anthology featuring a rich range of themes – from animals to nursery rhymes, from nonsense poems to magic. Many favourites are here, including ‘The Owl and the Pussy-Cat’, ‘Jabberwocky’ and ‘The Tyger’. This delightful collection is the perfect gift for children and a chance for adults to revisit their favourite verse from the likes of Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahame.Table of ContentsIntroduction - i: Introduction Unit - 1: Animals Poem - 1: The Owl and the Pussy-Cat - Edward Lear Poem - 2: The Kitten at Play - William Wordsworth Poem - 3: The Cat and the Moon - W. B. Yeats Poem - 4: Maggie - Anon. Poem - 5: The Duel - Eugene Field Poem - 6: Old Mother Hubbard - Anon Poem - 7: An Alphabet of Questions - Charles Edward Carryl Poem - 8: Measles in the Ark - Susan Coolidge Poem - 9: Old Noah’s Ark - Anon Poem - 10: There Was an Old Lady - Anon Poem - 11: The Lion and the Unicorn - Anon Poem - 12: The Law of the Jungle - Rudyard Kipling Poem - 13: The Tyger - William Blake Poem - 14: On the Grasshopper and Cricket - John Keats Poem - 15: Way Down South - Anon Poem - 16: The Spider and the Fly - Mary Botham Howitt Poem - 17: Against Idleness and Mischief - Isaac Watts Poem - 18: How Doth the Little Crocodile - Lewis Carroll Poem - 19: Hey Diddle Diddle - Anon Poem - 20: Three Blind Mice - Anon Poem - 21: Hickory, Dickory, Dock - Anon Poem - 22: Baa, Baa, Black Sheep - Anon Poem - 23: Mary Had a Little Lamb - Sarah Josepha Hale Poem - 24: The Mouse, the Frog and the Little Red Hen - Anon Poem - 25: A Frog He Would a-Wooing Go - Anon Poem - 26: Five Little Speckled Frogs - Anon Poem - 27: A Song of Toad - Kenneth Grahame Poem - 28: The Shark - Lord Alfred Douglas Poem - 29: The Lobster Quadrille - Lewis Carroll Poem - 30: The Donkey - Anon Poem - 31: The Plaint of the Camel - Charles Edward Carryl Unit - 2: Counting Poem - 1: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe - Anon Poem - 2: One Potato - Anon Poem - 3: Thirty Days Hath September - Anon Poem - 4: Three Little Ghostesses - Anon Poem - 5: One, Two, Three, Four, Five - Anon Unit - 3: Nature Poem - 1: The Months - Sara Coleridge Poem - 2: Child’s Song in Spring - Edith Nesbit Poem - 3: Seven Times One: Exultation - Jean Ingelow Poem - 4: I Saw - Anon Poem - 5: Daffodils - William Wordsworth Poem - 6: Symphony in Yellow - Oscar Wilde Poem - 7: What is Pink? - Christina Rossetti Poem - 8: I Asked the Little Boy Who Cannot See - Anon Poem - 9: Lavender’s Blue - Anon Poem - 10: Little Robin Redbreast - Anon Poem - 11: She Sells Seashells - Anon Poem - 12: I Had a Little Nut Tree - Anon Poem - 13: The Mulberry Bush - Anon Poem - 14: Banyan Tree - Anon Unit - 4: People Poem - 1: Pat- a- cake - Anon Poem - 2: Little Miss Muffet - Anon Poem - 3: Peter Piper - Anon Poem - 4: Simple Simon - Anon Poem - 5: Little Jack Horner - Anon Poem - 6: Little Boy Blue - Anon Poem - 7: Each Peach Pear Plum - Anon Poem - 8: Do You Know the Muffin Man? - Anon Poem - 9: Doctor Foster - Anon Poem - 10: Betty Botter - Anon Poem - 11: Jack and Jill - Anon Poem - 12: Polly and Sukey - Anon Poem - 13: Rosy Apple - Anon Poem - 14: Monday’s Child - Anon Poem - 15: Daisy - Anon Poem - 16: Old King Cole - Anon Poem - 17: Humpty Dumpty - Anon Poem - 18: Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me? - Anon Poem - 19: Bobby Shaftoe - Anon Poem - 20: There Was a Princess Long Ago - Anon Poem - 21: Brown Girl in the Ring - Anon Poem - 22: Waltzing Matilda - Banjo Paterson Poem - 23: The School Boy - William Blake Poem - 24: from The Pied Piper of Hamelin - Robert Browning Poem - 25: La Belle Dame sans Merci - John Keats Poem - 26: Lochinvar - Sir Walter Scott Unit - 5: Nonsense Poem - 1: Jabberwocky - Lewis Carroll Poem - 2: Tweedle- dum and Tweedle- dee - Anon Poem - 3: Beautiful Soup - Lewis Carroll Poem - 4: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat - Lewis Carroll Poem - 5: You Are Old, Father William - Lewis Carroll Poem - 6: The Mad Gardener’s Song - Lewis Carroll Poem - 7: The Sugar-Plum Tree - Eugene Field Poem - 8: Wynken, Blynken and Nod - Eugene Field Poem - 9: There Was an Old Man with a Beard - Edward Lear Poem - 10: The Man in the Wilderness - Anon Poem - 11: The Jumblies - Edward Lear Poem - 12: The Walrus and the Carpenter - Lewis Carroll Poem - 13: The Pobble Who Has No Toes - Edward Lear Unit - 6: Places Poem - 1: I Remember, I Remember - Thomas Hood Poem - 2: From a Railway Carriage - Robert Louis Stevenson Poem - 3: The Big Ship Sails on the Alley, Alley O - Anon Poem - 4: A Sailor Went to Sea Sea Sea - Anon Poem - 5: Pop Goes the Weasel! - Anon Poem - 6: The Bells of London - Anon Poem - 7: London Bridge Is Falling Down - Anon Unit - 7: Fairies, Mermaids and Witches Poem - 1: Fire, Burn; and Cauldron, Bubble - William Shakespeare Poem - 2: Overheard on a Saltmarsh - Harold Monro Poem - 3: The Mermaid - Alfred, Lord Tennyson Poem - 4: The Merman - Alfred, Lord Tennyson Poem - 5: The Forsaken Merman - Matthew Arnold Unit - 9: Night Poem - 1: Star Light, Star Bright - Anon Poem - 2: Bed-time - Anon Poem - 3: Hush, Little Baby - Anon Poem - 4: Sweet and Low ( from The Princess) - Alfred, Lord Tennyson Poem - 5: The Star - Jane Taylor Poem - 6: A Cradle Song - Thomas Dekker Poem - 7: A Cradle Song - Thomas Dekker Poem - 8: My Shadow - Robert Louis Stevenson Poem - 9: Escape at Bedtime - Robert Louis Stevenson Poem - 10: The Land of Story Books - Robert Louis Stevenson Poem - 11: I Had a Boat - Mary Coleridge Poem - 12: Windy Nights - Robert Louis Stevenson Poem - 13: The Land of Counterpane - Robert Louis Stevenson Poem - 14: Minnie and Winnie - Alfred, Lord Tennyson Poem - 15: Teddy Bear - Anon Poem - 16: I See the Moon - Anon Index - ii: Index of Poets Index - iii: Index of Titles Index - iv: Index of First Lines

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Book SynopsisCountless writers have been inspired by the beauty of birds – their colours, their easy flight, their lightness and softness, and the grace and whimsicality of their ways. Our literature, especially our poetry, is full of them. This annotated edition of Poems About Birds selects the very best from H. J. Massingham’s original collection which was first published in 1922.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.Spanning from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, Poems About Birds captures the enticing lives of birds through the eyes of classic poets. From John Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ to Sylvia Lynd’s ‘The Return of the Goldfinches’, and from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘The Eagle’ to William Wordsworth’s ‘To The Skylark’, countless varieties of bird are celebrated here.

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Book SynopsisFor the modern world Greek tragedy is represented almost entirely by those plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides whose texts have been preserved since they were first produced in the fifth century BC. From that period and the next two hundred years more than eighty other tragic poets are known from biographical and production data, play-titles, mythical subject-matter, and remnants of their works quoted by other ancient writers or rediscovered in papyrus texts. This edition includes all the remnants of tragedies that can be identified with these other poets, with English translations, related historical information, detailed explanatory notes and bibliographies. Volume 1 includes some twenty 5th-century poets, notably Phrynichus, Aristarchus, Ion, Achaeus, Sophocles’ son Iophon, Agathon and the doubtful cases of Neophron (author of a Medea supposedly imitated by Euripides) and Critias (possibly author of three other tragedies attributed to Euripides). Volume 2 will include the 4th- and 3rd-century tragedians and some anonymous material derived from ancient sources or rediscovered papyrus texts.Remnants of these poets’ satyr-plays are included in a separate Aris & Phillips Classical Texts volume, Euripides Cyclops and Major Fragments of Greek Satyric Drama, edited by Patrick O’Sullivan and Christopher Collard (2013).Trade Review‘The most valuable element of the volume is the introductory discussions for each author and for each title, as well as the commentary notes to the testimonies and fragments.' Felice Stama, Bryn Mawr Classical Review ‘Our general opinion on Cropp's work is highly positive: well documented, scientifically up-to-date and rigorous, but at the same time easy to consult.’ Paolo B. Cipolla, Exemplaria Classica (translated from Italian).‘The clear translations, appropriately designed commentaries, and especially the excellent introductions to the individual poets and plays, in which Cropp includes both older and recent interpretations, while frequently adding his own thought-provoking suggestions, will find a grateful readership.’ Hauke Schneider, Gymnasium (translated from German)Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionTragedy in the fifth century: a sketchSourcesThis editionTexts, Translations and NotesThespis (TrGF 1) Choerilus (TrGF 2) Phrynichus (TrGF 3) Pratinas (TrGF 4) Polyphrasmon (TrGF 7) Aristias (TrGF 9) Euphorion, Euaeon (TrGF 12, 13) Aristarchus (TrGF 14) Neophron (TrGF 15) Euripides I, II (TrGF 16, 17) Ion (TrGF 19) Achaeus (TrGF 20) Iophon (TrGF 22)Philocles I (TrGF 24) Xenocles I (TrGF 33) Agathon (TrGF 39) Critias? (TrGF 43) Diogenes of Athens (TrGF 45) Abbreviations and references Indexes (Poets; Titles; Sources; General)

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Book SynopsisThe Uyghur people of Central Asia have a long and distinguished tradition of poetry - indeed, their first oral epic was circulating as early as the 2nd century BCE. In the medieval period Sufi poetry flourished, embracing Persian forms such as the ghazal, which spoke eloquently of beauty, love, loss and separation. A major poet, Alshir Navayi (1441­-1501) fully established classical Turkic or Chagatai as a perfect vehicle for poetic expression. Some contemporary poets continue to find inspiration within the traditional forms, while others experiment with a freer style of verse.Uyghur poetry reflects the magnificent natural landscapes where the Uyghurs have lived for two millennia - endless steppes, soaring mountain ranges and mysterious deserts, crossed by the historic Silk Road. It is also shaped by their turbulent past, caught between warring empires or marauding warlords - and their deeply troubled present.The Uyghurs form a minority in China, where the government is now making a systematic attempt to erase their language and culture. Many intellectuals have been imprisoned, and many poets are now writing from exile, including the editor and translator of this volume, Aziz Isa Elkun, who lives in London. Uyghur Poems is not only a celebration of an ancient and vibrant poetic tradition, but also a vital witness to a culture under threat.

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Book SynopsisFoscolo ranks among the most famous and enduringly popular poets in Italian literature, and in this collection, the only available in the English language, his most significant poems are collected in J.G. Nichols's lucid verse translation. Expressing the author's political, civic and sentimental concerns, these poems will surprise the English reader with their immediacy and intimacy. Sepulchres, Foscolo's masterpiece, as well as being one of the pinnacles of European neoclassical literature, is still one of the most widely studied poems in Italy. Foscolo's poetry reveals the inner recesses of a passionate, restless and surprisingly modern mind.

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Book SynopsisAn exciting addition to Everyman's Library: a new series of small, handsome hardcover volumes devoted to the world's classic poets. Our books will have twice as many pages as Bloomsbury Classics' 128pp and will cost 7. 99 against Bloomsbury's 9. 99. The binding, paper and production will be visibly superior in every way to that of Bloomsbury

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Book SynopsisLucas Bender considers Du Fu's pivotal role in the transformation of Chinese poetic understanding over the last millennium. Du Fu anticipated important philosophical transitions from the late-medieval into the early-modern period and laid the template for a new and perduring paradigm of poetry's relationship to ethics.Trade ReviewInformative and insightful, with articulate arguments and nuanced explications. …In this day and age, it takes tremendous courage, assiduous scholarship, and fresh thinking to write an excellent book on Du Fu’s poetry. Bender’s is one such book. -- Xiaoshan Yang * Journal of the American Oriental Society *A well-researched, beautifully executed work, Bender’s book has succeeded in unfolding an innovative and complex narrative of Du Fu’s transformation… [A] valuable and timely contribution to our understanding of this iconic poet, inviting students of traditional Chinese poetry and literature to further explore the perennial and dynamic tension between tradition and the individual talent. -- Ji Hao * Tang Studies *

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Book SynopsisThe Epic of Ram, Volume 7 completes Tulsidas’s grand epic. Ram reunites with his family and begins his long reign. Then, an immortal sage embodied in a lowly crow reflects on Ram’s life. This edition features the Avadhi text in the Devanagari script alongside a new free verse English translation of the beloved Ramayana story.Trade Review[A] cause for celebration—one of India’s most influential texts has been translated into contemporary English by a pivotal scholar who has devoted much of his career to the text, and its afterlives…Gives us a firm starting point for charting horizons and pathways into still-living traditions. -- Nikhil Govind * Scroll.in *Lutgendorf manages a simplicity, elegance and dignity, whereas attempts to rhyme or alliterate by other translators have often resulted in bathos…If this graceful and eminently readable translation can win more readers for this great scripture, which is also the greatest poem ever written in Hindi, it would have served to reaffirm Tulsi’s belief in the countless multiplicity of Ramayans. -- Harish Trivedi * IIC Quarterly *

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Book SynopsisLucan's great poem, Pharsalia, recounts events surrounding the decisive battle fought near Pharsalus in 48 B.C. during the civil war between the forces of Pompey and Julius Caesar. Though the subject of this unfinished masterpiece is historical, many...

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Book SynopsisHeinrich Wittenwiler's Ring, written in a Swiss dialect and presented in English translation for the first time in this 1956 volume, is a comic-didactic and religious allegory that documents late medieval views on many aspects of literature, history, law and religion.

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Book Synopsis''One of the great mythic poems of Europe'' The New York TimesSharing its title with the poetic name for Finland - ''the land of heroes'' - Kalevala is the soaring epic poem of its people, a work rich in magic and myth which tells the story of a nation through the ages from the dawn of creation. Sung by rural Finns since prehistoric times, and formally compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the nineteenth century, it is a landmark of Finnish culture and played a vital role in galvanizing its national identity in the decades leading to independence. Its themes, however, reach beyond borders and search the heart of human existence.Translated with an Introduction by Eino FribergTrade ReviewA masterpiece * Spectator *One of the great mythic poems of Europe * New York Times *The Kalevala is a fabulous narrative spiced with exotic images and much hilarity -- Jennifer Cooke * Melbourne Sunday Herald *

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Book SynopsisWith a preface by Elizabeth Macneal and original illustrations by Laurence Housman.Two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, are enticed by the smells, sounds and sights of the goblin market, tempted by the ripe figs, plump cherries and fragrant berries. Whilst Lizzie resists, Laura is slowly destroyed by her insatiable longing for the goblin’s forbidden fruit.Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Here is Christina Rossetti’s first critically acclaimed collection of poetry. Published in 1862, as well as ‘Goblin Market’ it contains some of her most treasured work, such as ‘A Birthday’, ‘An Apple Gathering’ and ‘Remember’. It launched her career as the foremost female poet of her time and, more than a century later, modern readers are still seduced by its symbolism and sensual language.

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Book SynopsisThe pseudonymous Appendix Ovidiana—which includes nature, erotic, and religious poetry—reflects different understandings of an admired Classical poet and expands his legacy through the Middle Ages. This is the first comprehensive collection and English translation of these medieval Latin verses ascribed to Ovid.Trade ReviewIn this excellent and well-crafted volume, Hexter, Pfuntner, and Haynes have performed a great service for all scholars interested in the later tradition of Ovid…This volume marks an important addition to the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. It makes accessible for the first time Latin poems circulating under Ovid’s name from antiquity to the late Middle Ages. It should be on every medievalist’s bookshelf. -- Frank Coulson * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *This volume is a welcome addition to the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library…The editors have crafted a very helpful introduction that contextualizes each of the poems and explains how medieval scribes related them to Ovid…Scholars of medieval Latin poetry will appreciate this collection of poems attributed to Ovid, which brings together in one place many otherwise obscure pieces of late antique and medieval Latin verse that share an association with the famed Roman poet. -- Scott G. Bruce * Mediaevistik *

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Book SynopsisA collection of poems by Wislawa Szymborska. It features twenty-seven poems.Trade Review"No reader, not even poetry-phobes, should miss the bright revelations of Nobel laureate Szymborska. [...] Syzmborska is sharply ironic and lithely philosophical, pondering the phenomenal precision of dreams and the elusiveness of meaning. The neat, prancing lyrics collected in this slender, piercing book are delectable and profound." --Booklist —

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Book SynopsisIntroduces international writing to the general and literary public - travelers, teachers, students, publishers, and a new generation of eclectic readers - by presenting international literature not as a static, elite phenomenon, but a portal through which to explore the world.Trade Review"An incomparable collection of poets whose work has bever been fully available in English...The reader is given a sense of the entire twentieth century. Kaminsky and Harris have done a first-rate job of bringing a literal world of poets together." -- Ploughshares "The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry is essential reading...There's no shortage of marvelous new voices to discover. Spanning generations, cultures and countries, this is truly a landmark publication-and it's a good gift for the poetry lover in your life, even if that person is you." -- Newsday "In this highly readable anthology, Kaminsky, one of his generation's finest poets, and Harris, the editorial director of Words Without Borders, aim to expand literary citizenship -- and succeed elegantly." -- The Barnes & Noble Review "I suspect there are not many collections (if any) like The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry. Gathered within its pages are some of the finest poems from around the planet written in the 20th century." -- The Morning News "From canonical modernists like Valery, Vallejo and Pasternak to younger poets of today, the Ecco Anthology collects an amazing spectrum of poetic voices from around the world in gifted translations, often by other well-known poets. It becomes immediately indispensable." -- John Ashbery "It is a modern book of wonders, of airy correspondences and earthly dialogues, of faraway voices and unlikely global encounters, of borders magically crossed and deaths transfigured, of candles lighting each other, like souls. It is inexhaustible." -- Edward Hirsch "This brilliantly assembled gathering of world voices reads as a symphony of utterance beginning to end, an international conversation of the highest order, regarding the questions and concerns of humankind, beyond borders and all other such barriers, real or imagined." -- Carolyn Forche

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Book Synopsis"Tom Simone''s translation is simply superb. Of all the translations with which I am familiar, this is the one that is the most faithful to what''s there in the Italian: no frills, no poetic sallies, no choosing a word because it brings the line closer to iambic pentameterjust unadulterated Dante with good old Anglo-Saxon words and in highly readable prose." Peter Kalkavage,St. John''s University

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Book SynopsisThis edition includes Edward Gallagher's prose translations of The Lays of Marie de France; a general introduction; a map; commentaries on the lays; two anonymous Breton lays—-The Lay of Melion and The Lay of Tyolet; a glossary of proper names; a glossary of specialized terms; and an appendix of selected texts in the Old French, including Marie's Prologue, Guigemar, Bisclavret, and Yonec.Trade ReviewWith admirable sensitivity to the meaning and style of the originals, Edward J. Gallagher has skillfully rendered these charming Old French verse narratives from the late twelfth century into engaging and readable modern English prose. Gallagher includes a detailed commentary on each of the twelve lays, two useful glossaries, and a selection of lays in Old French. Readers will appreciate his substantial and informative introduction to the works of Marie de France and to the illustrious literary and cultural context within which these masterpieces in miniature took shape. --Donald Maddox, University of Massachusetts AmherstEditions and translations of Marie de France's Lais have appeared at a steady rate since 1885, indeed in every decade since the 1940s. Edward Gallagher's prose translation (which also translates two anonymous lais, Melion and Tyolet) is the latest, a lively, readable version. . . . [T]his book is welcome: it should help introduce yet more students to these fascinating poems in a clear and energetic prose. --Modern Language ReviewProfessor Gallagher’s translation is a very timely one. It is produced in a handsome paperback and is highly accessible in price and in its level of critical language to undergraduates, graduates, and lay (no pun intended) readers alike. Students of medieval literature, French or European, will find it a congenial text, written in clear English prose, of Marie’s twelve Lays, along with two other lays not attributed to Marie. Each Lay is followed by an illuminative commentary. The body of the text is preceded by an excellent Introduction wherein Gallagher provides the chief facts about Marie, her oeuvre, and recent critical scholarship on Marie, without indulging in unneeded pedantry. --Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures

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Book SynopsisLike his groundbreaking Inferno (Hackett, 2009) and Purgatorio (Hackett, 2016), Stanley Lombardo's Paradiso features a close yet dynamic verse translation, innovative verse paragraphing for reader-friendliness, and a facing-page Italian text. It also offers an extraordinarily helpful set of notes and headnotes as well as Introduction—all designed for first-time readers of the canticle—by Alison Cornish.Trade Review"Lombardo makes Dante's verses come alive in so many ways that this crowning achievement stands on its own as inspired poetry, readily comprehensible and reliably attentive to the many different registers that the Florentine poet incorporates in his text. Despite its reputation as the most challenging of the three canticles, the Paradiso, in Lombardo's dramatically charged version, becomes remarkably transparent. . . . As is characteristic of his previous translations, Lombardo addresses his version of Paradiso not only to readers but also to listeners and succeeds in recreating the various stages on which the Comedy was originally received and presented: private readings at home and more public oral performances either for small, intimate groups within the palazzo walls or before large crowds in the town square. . . . In her fine Introduction, instructive headnotes to individual cantos, and extensive explanatory endnotes, Alison Cornish provides all the information necessary for a profitable reading of the Paradiso. . . . This handsome bilingual edition is a welcome addition to the large and ever increasing number of annotated translations of Dante's Comedy." —Christopher Kleinhenz, Carol Mason Kirk Professor Emeritus of Italian, University of Wisconsin–Madison"The distinctive combination of Lombardo's lucid rendering of Dante's poem with Cornish's judicious commentary will make this volume a remarkable resource for both new and seasoned readers. It not only provides the necessary coordinates to comprehend Dante's daring description of eternity but also offers new insights about the work’s relation to its historical, philosophical, and literary contexts." —Martin Eisner, Associate Professor of Romance Studies, Duke University"This translation and commentary are an essential contribution to Dante's reception in English. Stanley Lombardo's translation is accurate, elegant, and transparent, a mirror of the original text. Alison Cornish's commentary is lucid, graceful, and precise, with just the right level of detail; it penetrates and opens the Paradiso's philosophical, scientific, and theological dimensions with authority, balance, sensitivity, and simplicity. Perhaps now more readers will follow Dante to Paradise." —Christian Moevs, Associate Professor of Italian, University of Notre Dame"Unlike the crowd-pleasing, visceral and eviscerating Inferno, the Paradiso is not exactly a page-turner. It's rather a quiet journey that demands we slow down, think, and feel before attempting to assimilate higher wisdom, more divine geometry, choreography, and optic theory, and before we meet more of the heroes from the Christian canon, cherishing their divine placement (Look how high Augustine made it. Great to see Joachim of Fiore!, etc.). Lombardo's and Cornish's book, as a book, is engineered to inspire and facilitate this sort of reading, with ample access to the language, ingenuity, creativity and care that Dante summons as he attempted, as far as a poet ever could, to express God's justice and His grace. This is a great classroom text, a tremendously useful parallel-text edition for students, general readers, and anyone at any level studying Dante. "Parallel texts serve best in the modern multicultural classroom where multilingual and monolingual speakers alike can directly engage with the majestic text. I have been teaching Dante for 25 years in a historically Hispanic institution and always cherished them because my bilingual students hear the roots of their own linguistic cultures in the Italian and experience both joy and empowerment in doing so. "One should never underestimate how timely and important are the many themes that one encounters in the Paradiso, such as the experiences of the holy women in the early cantos who were forced into marriage and away from their monastic vows, a stunning episode that explores human and particular female agency in shaping one's own personal and spiritual destiny. Also the depictions of equity, equality, and diversity in heaven will be of great interest to modern readers concerned with social order and social justice. What fascinating class discussions can arise from contemplating the medieval and the modern—and the divine and earthly—urges for justice! Such questions help keep Dante alive and relevant at a time when many teachers fear for the future of the Humanities. To this labor of preserving the past and its great Humanist writers, Lombardo and Cornish have contributed mightily. "Lombardo in his Translator's Preface (xxix) says that his translation of the Inferno has been accused of sounding something like the dialogue in a Scorsese movie. And there are in fact some Scorsese-esque moments even here in paradise, such as when Charles Martel lists various illustrious figures born to great destiny during a discussion of how both birth and divine influence play a part in shaping human destiny: "So one is born a Solon, another Xerxes, / one Melchizedek, and another the one / who flew through the air and lost his son" (81: VIII 124-126), lines directly modeled on the Wizard's rundown of human vocational differences to Travis in Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Among a thousand gems, that is, moments when the translation just nails the moment in mood, diction, tone and or register, I would note some favorites: XII.91-94 (p. 119); XII.70-74 (p. 117); and XII.37-39 (p. 95). "Cornish's notes to each canto, judicious and hyper-clear, are in the back of the book, supporting undistracted reading. The notes guide and mentor the reader, reinforcing what we just read and providing historical information or identification of figures and concepts. Cornish begins each canto with an overview of the characters and content, and uses key words in the original Italian to introduce major terms and concepts. Her introduction is particularly warm and welcoming, emphasizing the themes of knowledge and most of all love that animate Dante's journey and his relationship with Beatrice. The entire apparatus forged by Cornish breaks down many barriers to reading Dante, in part by directly addressing the traditional preference for the Inferno. One could build a course on Dante out of her economic survey of the liberal arts authors she nimbly weaves into the discussion of cosmology, justice, order, and heaven. After the Introduction a spatial map with an elegant rose and spread sheet of canto, location, class of the blessed, and major characters helps readers to chart their personal journey upward. "This publication will help ensure that new generations of readers are welcomed into this unique and ineffable journey. I look forward to teaching it as soon as possible." —Michael Calabrese, California State University, Los Angeles, in The Medieval Review

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Book SynopsisOn 17th September 1820, accompanied by his friend Joseph Severn, John Keats left London for Italy on board the Maria Crowther in a desperate bid to restore his health. Anguished at the thought of having to part, possibly for ever, from his fiancee and his friends, troubled by money worries and broken in body and mind, the young poet launched on his last journey on earth with both a sense of hope and a deep foreboding that his efforts would be in vain. Despite Keats's own assertion that by then he no longer felt a citizen of the world and was leading a "posthumous life", his final five months were filled with events of great biographical interest, and deserve to be examined much more carefully. Using exclusively primary sources and first-hand accounts, Keats's editor and translator Alessandro Gallenzi has pieced together all the available material - adding newly discovered and previously unpublished documents - to help the reader follow the poet step by step from his departure and tumultuous voyage to Naples, through to his arduous journey to Rome and harrowing death in his lodgings by the Spanish Steps in February 1821. The result is a gripping narrative packed with detail and new revelations, one that invites us to strip away the Romantic patina that has formed over the story of Keats's short life, offering a wider picture that enhances our understanding of both poet and man.Trade ReviewEnthralling and original... Gallenzi’s meticulous commitment to his subject shines through. Although he presents himself as something of an embattled outsider, he is working within, and contributing to, a long tradition of Keats scholarship. There’s no doubt that all Keatsians will appreciate the new details and insights he adds to our picture of the poet’s last five months. -- Lucasta Miller * The Spectator *Superbly researched… crisply written… a work of vivid and absorbing scholarship, [which] serves as a stringent corrective to the mass of lazy scholarship that proliferates on Keats by the day. Anyone interested in Rome and the Romantic poets will gain much from reading it. Terrific. -- Ian Thomson * The Tablet *Anyone who relishes the chance to spend a little more time with John Keats (I’m one) will find this an affecting read. -- Suzi Feay * he London Magazine *Focusing on the last five months of John Keats's life, and proceeding with solid method and original research, Alessandro Gallenzi's biography of the poet extends, without stretching, our knowledge of his 'posthumous existence'. Old beliefs are dismissed and new discoveries are made, which raise more questions. An indispensable work of scholarship – and a great read too. -- Dr Luca Caddia * Keats-Shelley House, Rome *His integrity as a researcher is a welcome addition to scholarship. -- Christy Edwall * TLS *Every single fragment of primary knowledge we had is expanded into a coherent narrative in which facts are ascertained and minor characters brought to life * The Keats-Shelley Review *Written in Water provides a long overdue vetting of the available evidence as well as unearthing new facts and it is sure to become an indispensable resource for future Keats biographers and scholars. * European Romantic Review *

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Book SynopsisCapturing the landscapes, landmarks, poetry and letters of Keats's epic walk, Carol Kyros Walker retraced Keats's footsteps originally in 1978-1979 and again in the autumns of 2015 and 2016 allowing readers to 'walk' alongside him.

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Book SynopsisA Telegraph Best New Poetry Books for Christmas 2021. Carcanet publishes several Catulluses: C.H. Sisson's, Len Krisak's, Simon Smith's. But Isobel Williams's Catullus: Shibari Carmina is different in kind from the earlier versions. 'Translating Catullus has been, for me, like cage fighting with two opponents,' the translator writes: 'not just A Top Poet, but the schoolgirl I was, trained to show the examiner that she knew what each word meant.' The struggle is intensified by the presence of a third element, something that made Catullus come alive, his 'tormented intelligence and romantic versatility'. 'It eventually happened at a fetish venue in South London, The Flying Dutchman - an echo of Catullus's doomed obsessive love? Someone at life class, knowing I like a drawing challenge, had told me about a Japanese rope bondage (shibari) club called Bound. I asked the management if I could draw there; on arrival I was treated like the Queen Mother. Best of all, the schoolgirl was too young to be let in.' The dynamics of shibari released Catullus from conventional constraints and delivered him to new rigours: 'I found context, metaphor and idiom for Catullus - whom one could glibly define as a bisexual switch from the late Roman Republic when such concepts were meaningless: a stern moralist who splits into an anxious bitchy dominant with the boys, a howling sub with his nemesis, the older glamorous married woman he calls Lesbia (here called Clodia, which might have been her real name).' The poet uses the terminology and forms of social media, a very contemporary idiom which is at once subjected to severe scholarship and tight syntactical discipline. All the crucial language knots are firmed up, the sense of the Latin emerges with Catullus's own laughter restored, along with the other registers of love and loss. Isobel Williams's drawings add immediacy to her versions which 'are not (for the most part) literal translations, but take an elliptical orbit around the Latin, brushing against it or defying its gravitational pull.'

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.

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Book SynopsisThe Old French Lancelot-Graal is an important but massive work, providing a place for King Arthur not only in the history of Britain but also in Christian history. This new translation of one section, the Quest of the Holy Grail, will be a flexible addition to courses on medieval literature or romance. The notes and guides are designed to help readers enjoy the text while appreciating its relationship to social and literary history. Appendices include translations of material from two of Chrétien de Troyes’s romances (Perceval and Yvain); translations from other parts of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle (the early history of the Grail and the conception of Galahad); and excerpts from apocryphal works (from French versions written at about the same time as the Quest).Trade Review“The Quest of the Holy Grail is a seminal work of medieval literature and still a constant source for allusion, quasi-proverbial citation, and even parody. The canonical version of the story is an early-thirteenth-century Old French prose romance, and Judith Shoaf provides a lucid and readable translation accompanied by an excellent learned introduction in which she situates the Quest in the history of medieval Arthurian romance and explains some of the key concepts of the romance for readers unfamiliar with medieval Arthurian romance and medieval Christian thought. This translation and introduction are clearly the best available for anglophone teachers of undergraduate (or high-school) courses in medieval romance, and scholars of Arthurian romance can learn much from both the introduction and the annotations to the text. This is a brilliant achievement that students and more advanced scholars alike can celebrate.” — Thomas D. Hill, Professor of English and Medieval Studies, Cornell University“Judith Shoaf’s new translation of the Quest of the Holy Grail is essential for anyone encountering the Quest either for the first time or after repeated study. Shoaf’s text surpasses earlier translations in accuracy and readability. Its explanatory notes, always illuminating, are helpfully placed at the bottom of the page rather than at the back of the book. Shoaf’s is the first English translation to include alternative conclusions found in manuscripts of the Quest. Her Introduction is as accessible as it is scholarly, guiding the reader expertly through the Quest, the chivalric and religious culture it portrays, and its place in the Vulgate Cycle and the Grail legend. The translation is richly supplemented with manuscript illustrations, an identification list of proper names, a genealogy of Galahad, and appendices featuring relevant passages from the Quest’s contexts in Arthurian legend and biblical apocrypha.” — Michael Twomey, Professor Emeritus, Ithaca CollegeTable of Contents The Round Table at Pentecost Galahad’s First Adventures Lancelot’s First Adventures Perceval’s Adventures Lancelot’s Adventures, Continued Lord Gawain’s Adventures Bors’s Adventures Galahad’s Adventures, Continued King Solomon’s Ship Galahad, Perceval, Bors, and Perceval’s Sister Lancelot Completes His Quest Galahad Completes His Quest Sarras Alternate Ending Appendix A: Chrétien de Troyes Perceval, or the Story of the Graal: The Three Grail Excerpts The Graal at the Fisher King’s Castle The Quest Is Declared Perceval and the Hermit Yvain, or the Knight of the Lion: Two Episodes Repurposed in the Quest The Serpent and the Lion The Two Daughters of the Lord of the Black Thorn Appendix B: Apocryphal Bible Stories From André de Coutances, The “Gospel of Nicodemus” Joseph of Arimathea after the Crucifixion The Harrowing of Hell The Tree of Mercy The History of the Holy Rood-Tree Jean Beleth’s Summary of the Legend of the Holy Cross Appendix C: Excerpts from the Lancelot-Grail Cycle History of the Holy Grail: The Nature of the Grail Object Joseph of Arimathea The Priesthood of Josephus Nascien and the Grail The Book of Lancelot du Lac: The Grail Procession and the Conception of Galahad Works Cited

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Book SynopsisThis is a collection of the standard texts of ancient Greek which are important components of what we know about Greek myth, religion, language and culture. All of the works collectively known as the Homeric Hymns are collected and translated here in their entirety, and the work includes ample notes and an introduction to provide information on the works'' historic importance, a chronological table, genealogical chart, maps of Greece and the Aegean Islands, and illustrations of vase paintings with mythological themes. This edition is part of the Focus Classical Library.

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Book SynopsisThis Focus Classical Reprint of Selections from Ovid offers a classic reader on Ovid from Charles W. Dunmore, professor emeritus at New York University. The text contains extensive selections from Ovid’s primary works, all in Latin, with commentary and a full vocabulary. Selections are taken from Metamorphoses, the Fasti, Heroides, Tristia, Epistulae ex Ponto, Amores, and Ars Amatoria.

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Book SynopsisThis translation by Tom Simone provides a text that is close to Dante's meter and style as is possible using modern English. In such a way a student gets a feel for the structure and impact of the original, and it could also provide an easy segue to the original Italian. Simone provides an extensive introduction, ample footnotes for references that may not be clear to the reader, and each Canto provides a prose overview of the poetry to follow, all designed to provide the modern student with access to this important work.

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Book SynopsisThis edition includes Edward Gallagher's prose translations of The Lays of Marie de France; a general introduction; a map; commentaries on the lays; two anonymous Breton lays—-The Lay of Melion and The Lay of Tyolet; a glossary of proper names; a glossary of specialized terms; and an appendix of selected texts in the Old French, including Marie's Prologue, Guigemar, Bisclavret, and Yonec.Trade ReviewWith admirable sensitivity to the meaning and style of the originals, Edward J. Gallagher has skillfully rendered these charming Old French verse narratives from the late twelfth century into engaging and readable modern English prose. Gallagher includes a detailed commentary on each of the twelve lays, two useful glossaries, and a selection of lays in Old French. Readers will appreciate his substantial and informative introduction to the works of Marie de France and to the illustrious literary and cultural context within which these masterpieces in miniature took shape. --Donald Maddox, University of Massachusetts AmherstEditions and translations of Marie de France's Lais have appeared at a steady rate since 1885, indeed in every decade since the 1940s. Edward Gallagher's prose translation (which also translates two anonymous lais, Melion and Tyolet) is the latest, a lively, readable version. . . . [T]his book is welcome: it should help introduce yet more students to these fascinating poems in a clear and energetic prose. --Modern Language ReviewProfessor Gallagher’s translation is a very timely one. It is produced in a handsome paperback and is highly accessible in price and in its level of critical language to undergraduates, graduates, and lay (no pun intended) readers alike. Students of medieval literature, French or European, will find it a congenial text, written in clear English prose, of Marie’s twelve Lays, along with two other lays not attributed to Marie. Each Lay is followed by an illuminative commentary. The body of the text is preceded by an excellent Introduction wherein Gallagher provides the chief facts about Marie, her oeuvre, and recent critical scholarship on Marie, without indulging in unneeded pedantry. --Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures

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Book SynopsisThe Epic of the Cid records the deeds of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the Cid of history and legend. A powerful warrior in the Christian reconquest of medieval Spain, a formidable strategist, and a charismatic leader, the Cid deeply impressed his contemporaries, both Christian and Muslim. Already, in his lifetime, songs, stories, and chronicles were devoted to his exploits.In offering both a highly readable, colloquial prose translation of El Cantar de Mio Cid and selections from a wide variety of those contemporary accounts, this volume brings the historical figure back to life for modern readers.Harney's substantial Introduction and annotation provide the historical, military, and literary background necessary for an informed reading of the texts; also included are maps, a compendium of proper names, a bibliography, and an index.Trade ReviewHarney's translation and literary panorama will become a standard reference for students and scholars throughout the English-speaking world for decades to come. Harney's profound knowledge of the cultural and creative ferment that surrounded the birth of this masterpiece is unchallenged. . . . The complementary medieval texts that Harney assembles--all the bright fragments that make up this mosaic of a ferocious warrior, clan chieftain, family man, and hero—have never before been brought together in one place with reliable translations from the Arabic, Latin, and Spanish. --George Greenia, College of William & MaryMany a student of medieval history or romance literature have had the pleasure of reading El Cid, but few have been given the opportunity to engage other sources which complement and, at times, contradict the story found in this epic. Michael Harney, an expert in medieval and Renaissance Spanish literature, seeks to rectify such an imbalance with a volume comprising an excellent prose translation of not only the lay of El Cid but also excerpts taken from seven additional texts redacted from as early as the late eleventh century to as late as the early sixteenth century. Harney has succeeded in crafting remarkably engaging and accessible prose translations of the aforementioned romance works--more so than any other translations which this reviewer has encountered to date. Thanks to Harney's gift for translation, this volume will also allow the reader to better understand how the included stories could have riveted their premodern audiences. --ComitatusA great translation. Harney's prose translation would be a great source for undergraduate courses, especially those on the Middle Ages or Spain. The positive features of Harney's translation are clear, precise translations of key terms and words, making it easier to follow the verse translations; a glossary of key terms; and a set of related texts to the El Cid Epic. Harney's introduction in addition to these related texts provides students with a fuller view of the historical Cid, not the one-dimensional character of the Epic. Harney also does a good job of framing the context of the Cid story. Highly recommended for undergraduate courses. --John Hunt, Department of History, Utah Valley University

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Book SynopsisA dazzling recreation of the most memorable Middle English poem, and one that captures the original alliterative verse in all its dimensions: sense, sound, and rhythm. --Ad Putter, Professor of Medieval English Literature, University of BristolTrade ReviewAccurate, poetic, and masterly, Joseph Glaser's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight captures and replicates with brio the craftsmanship of the English romancer known as the Gawain-poet. A brilliant Introduction by medievalist and romance expert Christine Chism invites readers' engagement with the text in addition to presenting reliable and up-to-date scholarly information about the work, its anonymous author, and its historical milieu. A finely executed and thought-provoking undergraduate edition of this medieval masterpiece. --Jordi Sánchez-Martí, Department of English Philology, University of Alicante[A] great book of really useful introductory material appropriately pitched for undergraduates. --Gina Brandolino, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor"One of the greatest strengths of the volume is the introduction by Christine Chism. Its language is both accessible and eloquent; the concepts she explains are sophisticated. In it, she contextualizes the poem in terms of both its literary and critical reception and introduces readers to the cultural and political climate of fourteenth-century England. Further sections suggest possible directions for undergraduate research and gesture toward contemporary scholarship on the poem. "Also to be lauded are the translator's preface (in which Glaser reflects candidly about the challenges of translation and the difficult choices such a task requires) and, wonderfully, the translation itself. It is both accurate and evocative. . . . Glaser's translation succeeds in rendering both formal elements of the poem in modern English, while faithfully conveying the sense of the original lines. "The most innovative element of Glaser's approach to his translation is his emphasis on the poem's east Cheshire dialect, arguing that its translation "must contain a relatively high portion of chewy Old English or Norse terms" (xliv). "Glaser's audience is not the popular one dazzled by Heaney or by Simon Armitage's recent translation of the same poem. The language of his Preface, as well as of the notes that accompany the text, is arrestingly colloquial and unapologetically didactic. Glaser's audience is one who lacks familiarity with Arthurian legend and the tropes of medieval romance." —Megan Stein, Department of English, University of California, Riverside, in Comitatus

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Book SynopsisA dazzling recreation of the most memorable Middle English poem, and one that captures the original alliterative verse in all its dimensions: sense, sound, and rhythm. --Ad Putter, Professor of Medieval English Literature, University of BristolTrade ReviewAccurate, poetic, and masterly, Joseph Glaser's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight captures and replicates with brio the craftsmanship of the English romancer known as the Gawain-poet. A brilliant Introduction by medievalist and romance expert Christine Chism invites readers' engagement with the text in addition to presenting reliable and up-to-date scholarly information about the work, its anonymous author, and its historical milieu. A finely executed and thought-provoking undergraduate edition of this medieval masterpiece. --Jordi Sánchez-Martí, Department of English Philology, University of Alicante[A] great book of really useful introductory material appropriately pitched for undergraduates. --Gina Brandolino, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor"One of the greatest strengths of the volume is the introduction by Christine Chism. Its language is both accessible and eloquent; the concepts she explains are sophisticated. In it, she contextualizes the poem in terms of both its literary and critical reception and introduces readers to the cultural and political climate of fourteenth-century England. Further sections suggest possible directions for undergraduate research and gesture toward contemporary scholarship on the poem. "Also to be lauded are the translator's preface (in which Glaser reflects candidly about the challenges of translation and the difficult choices such a task requires) and, wonderfully, the translation itself. It is both accurate and evocative. . . . Glaser's translation succeeds in rendering both formal elements of the poem in modern English, while faithfully conveying the sense of the original lines. "The most innovative element of Glaser's approach to his translation is his emphasis on the poem's east Cheshire dialect, arguing that its translation "must contain a relatively high portion of chewy Old English or Norse terms" (xliv). "Glaser's audience is not the popular one dazzled by Heaney or by Simon Armitage's recent translation of the same poem. The language of his Preface, as well as of the notes that accompany the text, is arrestingly colloquial and unapologetically didactic. Glaser's audience is one who lacks familiarity with Arthurian legend and the tropes of medieval romance." —Megan Stein, Department of English, University of California, Riverside, in Comitatus

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Book SynopsisThe Satires of Horace offer a hodgepodge of genres and styles: philosophy and bawdry; fantastic tales and novelistic vignettes; portraits of the poet, his contemporaries, and his predecessors; jibes, dialogue, travelogue, rants, and recipes; and poetic effects in a variety of modes. For all their apparent lightheartedness, however, the poems both illuminate and bear the marks of a momentous event in world history, one in which Horace himself played an active role--the death of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Principate.John Svarlien's lively blank-verse translation reflects the wide range of styles and tones deployed throughout Horace's eighteen sermons or conversations, deftly reproducing their distinctive humor while tracking the poet's changing mannerisms and moods.David Mankin's Introduction offers a brief account of the political upheavals in which Horace participated as well as the social setting in which his Satires were produced, and points up hallmarks of the poet's distinctive brand of satire. His detailed commentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Roman society and an often between-the-lines examination of a key work of one of Rome's sharpest observers.Trade ReviewThis work will be a welcome addition to course reading lists, as it does justice to Horace's misleadingly simple verse. Svarlien's rhythmic lines go down lightly and easily--as he renders Horace's phrase, he 'writes like people talk,' yet it is a talk that jars and provokes. Mankin's concise and highly readable notes will be as useful to scholars as to new readers of Horace: they are packed with cultural background, stylistic commentary, useful cross-references, and appealing suggestions on interpretation. --Catherine Keane, Department of Classics, Washington University in St. LouisSvarlien's handling of blank verse is supple, vigorous, and melodic. He is able to devise a style of verse that is appropriately conversational and varied. Hard to imagine there will soon be a better translation of the Satires. Mankin's introduction is lucid and extremely informative, and his execution of the end-notes is brilliant. --W. R. Johnson, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, University of ChicagoClear, lively, readable, with fast-paced iambics creating a fluent blank verse. Useful apparatus too. --Rachel Hadas, Department of English, Rutgers University

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Book SynopsisThe Satires of Horace offer a hodgepodge of genres and styles: philosophy and bawdry; fantastic tales and novelistic vignettes; portraits of the poet, his contemporaries, and his predecessors; jibes, dialogue, travelogue, rants, and recipes; and poetic effects in a variety of modes. For all their apparent lightheartedness, however, the poems both illuminate and bear the marks of a momentous event in world history, one in which Horace himself played an active role--the death of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Principate.John Svarlien's lively blank-verse translation reflects the wide range of styles and tones deployed throughout Horace's eighteen sermons or conversations, deftly reproducing their distinctive humor while tracking the poet's changing mannerisms and moods.David Mankin's Introduction offers a brief account of the political upheavals in which Horace participated as well as the social setting in which his Satires were produced, and points up hallmarks of the poet's distinctive brand of satire. His detailed commentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Roman society and an often between-the-lines examination of a key work of one of Rome's sharpest observers.Trade ReviewThis work will be a welcome addition to course reading lists, as it does justice to Horace's misleadingly simple verse. Svarlien's rhythmic lines go down lightly and easily--as he renders Horace's phrase, he 'writes like people talk,' yet it is a talk that jars and provokes. Mankin's concise and highly readable notes will be as useful to scholars as to new readers of Horace: they are packed with cultural background, stylistic commentary, useful cross-references, and appealing suggestions on interpretation. --Catherine Keane, Department of Classics, Washington University in St. LouisSvarlien's handling of blank verse is supple, vigorous, and melodic. He is able to devise a style of verse that is appropriately conversational and varied. Hard to imagine there will soon be a better translation of the Satires. Mankin's introduction is lucid and extremely informative, and his execution of the end-notes is brilliant. --W. R. Johnson, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, University of ChicagoClear, lively, readable, with fast-paced iambics creating a fluent blank verse. Useful apparatus too. --Rachel Hadas, Department of English, Rutgers University

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Book SynopsisWritten in the reign of Nero—the emperor against whom Lucan was implicated in a conspiracy and by whom he was compelled to commit suicide at the age of 25—the poet's dark, ambiguous, unfinished masterpiece focuses on the disintegration of the Roman body politic and the war between Julius Caesar and Pompey that ultimately lead to the end of the Roman republic. While aiming for a poem both as rugged as Lucan's—with its mix of history and fantasy, of high and low registers, of common and uncommon turns of phrase, of narrative and declamation—and as reader-friendly as possible, Brian Walters owns that he has "nowhere tried to simplify the rhetorical excesses that are the essence of Lucan's poem, the real meat and bone of the Civil War." A brilliant Introduction by W. R. Johnson discusses the poem's relationship to Nero and monarchy; its invocations of both the gods and chaos; the real hero of the Civil War; and the poem's end and narrative styles. Synopses of individual books; suggestions for further reading; a glossary of names, places, and Roman institutions; and a map are also included.Trade Review"Brian Walters has given us what too few translators of classical poetry do—an authorial presence. Here is Lucan himself in all his drastic modes—everything from his enraged indignation to his paradoxical aphorisms--recreating the ruptured Neronian world he lived in as he recounts the nefarious civil war that destroyed the Roman Republic."—Stanley Lombardo, University of Kansas"Brian Walters, aware that the poem's 'obsessive meditations on tyranny and the corruption of power' fit the times, brings to life in his translation the fractured state of the late Roman Republic as Julius Caesar's compulsive boundary-crossing chips away at the increasingly futile resistance of Pompey and Cato. Lucan's violent content demands an equivalent violence of expression, and here Walter's is especially successful, as during the naval slaughter at Massilia (3.549-803) or Erichtho's reanimation of a young soldier's corpse (6.760-883. He really hits his grisly stride, though, with the infamous snake episode (9.749-854), a scene of herpetological carnage that he renders with Quentin Tarantino-esque intensity and absurdity. "W.R. Johnson, a critic who has been most willing to find the dark humor in Lucan's poetry, situates the work accordingly as a 'unique fusion of high seriousness with an especially bitter kind of satire fueled by vehement sarcasm' and takes the reader though the greatest its of modern Lucian criticism—anti-heroics, Olympian omissions, the poet's relationship to Nero, the poem's 'ending'—with an eye to this fusion." —Patrick J. Burns, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, in Classical World"There is much to like about this translation. I commend Walters especially for his excellent ear for 21st century American idiom and diction and the way this helps to create a powerfully simple and clear translation. . . . Walters includes welcome supplementary material, such as a full glossary and a helpful book-by-book structural synopsis. In addition, W.R. Johnson's introduction is provocative and revealing, dealing specifically with the dangerous world of Neronian Rome, Lucan's atypical approach to the gods and the hero, and the Civil War's diverse narrative styles. . . . A welcome option for the classroom [that] may just help hook new fans on Post-Augustan epic." —Stephen M. Kirshner, Austin Peay State University, in CJ-Online

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Book Synopsis"One of the most entertaining short narratives of all time, the Achilleid is a stand-alone work of compelling contemporary interest that moves with great rapidity and clarity. Its compact narrative, which encompasses a brutish childhood, an overprotective mother, temporary gender bending, sexual violence, and a final coming to manhood with the promise of future military prowess, may be unparalleled in a single narrative of such brevity. The text has survived in hundreds of manuscripts, sometimes copied with Statius’ much longer and lugubrious Thebaid, but just as often with other racy short narratives and dramas taught in the medieval schools. The poem’s literary playfulness, visual imagery, and lighthearted treatment of mythological and historical data made it—and can still make it—a goldmine in the classroom. Until now, however, it has been virtually impossible to get a sense of the work if one did not know Latin—recent translations notwithstanding. Stanley Lombardo's translation of the Achilleid is a dream: it’s sound, enthralling, and will fully engage readers with this enticing, perplexing, at times distressing, but ultimately rewarding work." —Marjorie Curry Woods, Blumberg Centennial Professor of English and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, The University of Texas at Austin Trade Review"The Achilleid has been translated into English twice before in the last twenty years, but neither previous translation addressed the needs of the undergraduate or general reader. Lombardo has not only made the Achilleid truly accessible for the first time to the Latinless reader of English, but has also produced an elegant and witty English poem. . . . Even in this brief text (roughly one thousand lines), Lombardo has the opportunity to demonstrate impressive range. He misses none of Statius's jokes or witty formulations. Where appropriate, however, Lombardo can also offer a higher register that shows the epic's constant negotiation with its 'Very Serious' tradition." —Neil Bernstein, Ohio University, in CJ-Online"A sparkling translation of Statius' fragmentary gem . . . Lombardo plays in the space between Statius' terse, demanding style and the debatable gravity of his epic's tone and subject matter. He locates the Achilleid precisely where he should, in the beguiling presence of simultaneously conflicting and complementary forces. Lombardo's Achilleid is a welcome translation that makes the text available for regular classroom instruction. . . . This is the first stand-alone English translation to be published in recent history. This fact lends the book the sort of pedagogical flexibility that facilitates its inclusion on a syllabus and brings its price down substantially from the cost of its nearest competitor, Shackleton-Bailey's Loeb edition of Thebaid 8–12 and Achilleid 1–2." —Leo Landrey, Fordham University, in BMCR"Lombardo's translation seems like a perfect addition to any reading course that covers the epic tradition, complicating in a compact manner issues such as heroism, masculinity, and sexual identity and offering a ready-made literary foil the Iliadic Achilles more familiar to our modern imagination. "[Heslin's Introduction] ensures that the accompanying poem cannot be read as an incomplete curiosity but rather as an interpretative challenge as worthy as any other in the Latin epic tradition." —Patrick J. Burns, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, in Classical World

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Book Synopsis"It was a refreshing, old-fashioned pleasure to read Julie Scott Meisami’s verse translation of, and introduction and notes to, this twelfth-century Persian allegorical romance." —Orhan Pahmuk, in the Times Literary SupplementTrade Review"The Haft Paykar—Nizami's twelfth-century masterpiece, written in the Persian verse couplet form known as masnavi—has waited a long time for a translation like this: one that simultaneously captures its lightness and charm and plumbs its wealth of cultural detail. Julie Meisami's deft, accurate, seemingly effortless version (rendered in English tetrameter, an inspired choice) is a rare accomplishment." —Michael Beard, University of North Dakota"Nizami's Haft Paykar is a deep, enduring work of literature, one that can be appreciated as psychological bildungsroman, fairytale, spiritual quest, and adventure tale. Meisami is a leading scholar of the classical Persian literary tradition, and her translation—the first full modern English rendering, and the only one to be based on a critical edition of the Persian text—pays close attention to the literary qualities of the poem." —Franklin Lewis, University of Chicago"Meisami is one of the foremost specialists in Persian literature alive today. Her translation of the Haft Paykar not only makes available for the general reader one of the classics of Persian literature, but enriches it with an extensive introduction and notes of the highest quality." —Jawid Mojaddedi, Rutgers University

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