Classics Books

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Book SynopsisIn his Introduction, MacKenzie discusses Flaubert's life, the writing of Madame Bovary, the world in which the novel is set, and its publication and reception. Footnotes, a bibliography, and a chronology are also provided.Trade ReviewAfter his beautiful translation of Baudelaire's Paris Spleen, Raymond N. MacKenzie now offers us a fresh, superb version of Madame Bovary by Flaubert. Impeccably transparent, this new translation captures the original's careful, precise language and admirably conveys the small-mindedness of nineteenth-century provincial French towns. MacKenzie's tour de force transports the reader to Yonville and compels him to look at Emma with Flaubert's calm, disenchanted eyes. --Thomas Pavel, Gordon J. Laing Distinguished Service Professor, University of ChicagoRaymond N. MacKenzie's fresh and faithful translation of Madame Bovary will enable a new generation of readers to discover the wonderful complexities of Flaubert's sardonic presentation of the yawning gulf between a woman's expectations of life and the realities she finds in nineteenth-century provincial France. By capturing the rhythms of the original French, and adopting a vocabulary which is neither too contemporary nor too dated, MacKenzie gives his readers the opportunity to enter into the heart of one of the great classics of world literature. --Rosemary Lloyd, Rudy Professor of French, Emerita, Indiana University

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Book SynopsisIn his Introduction, MacKenzie discusses Flaubert's life, the writing of Madame Bovary, the world in which the novel is set, and its publication and reception. Footnotes, a bibliography, and a chronology are also provided.Trade ReviewAfter his beautiful translation of Baudelaire's Paris Spleen, Raymond N. MacKenzie now offers us a fresh, superb version of Madame Bovary by Flaubert. Impeccably transparent, this new translation captures the original's careful, precise language and admirably conveys the small-mindedness of nineteenth-century provincial French towns. MacKenzie's tour de force transports the reader to Yonville and compels him to look at Emma with Flaubert's calm, disenchanted eyes. --Thomas Pavel, Gordon J. Laing Distinguished Service Professor, University of ChicagoRaymond N. MacKenzie's fresh and faithful translation of Madame Bovary will enable a new generation of readers to discover the wonderful complexities of Flaubert's sardonic presentation of the yawning gulf between a woman's expectations of life and the realities she finds in nineteenth-century provincial France. By capturing the rhythms of the original French, and adopting a vocabulary which is neither too contemporary nor too dated, MacKenzie gives his readers the opportunity to enter into the heart of one of the great classics of world literature. --Rosemary Lloyd, Rudy Professor of French, Emerita, Indiana University

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Book SynopsisHere in one convenient volume are the two earliest examples of the ancient Greek novel.Trade ReviewSince these texts first found their way into the mainstream of Classics instruction twenty years ago, the need for new translations has become obvious, not only because of the textual and theoretical advances made in the interim, but because of demand for examining them in broader contexts. For both surveys of Greek and Roman literature and courses on the history of prose fiction, that demand has now been elegantly met. Trzaskoma's translation, based on greatly improved Greek texts, shows a sophisticated appreciation of the range in vocabulary and tone within Chariton, and similarities and differences in style between Chariton and Xenophon become easily apparent. Chariton may be a naïve romance by some classifications, but the text's intertextual dimensions, described in a helpful introduction that avoids prescribing how to interpret these texts, are now made much clearer. The copious annotations not only provide topical references but also mark the wide range of literary allusions and parallels. From every angle these texts have received a detailed rethinking. The Chariton and Xenophon I thought I knew have become much richer and more compelling texts. Any student of the ancient novel, and any teacher wanting to create more students of the ancient novel, needs to read this book. --Joel C. Relihan, Professor of Classics, Wheaton College (Norton, Mass.)I enjoyed this edition very much--the translations are readable while maintaining a strong sense of the originals. The introduction materials are informative and accessible making this text suitable for undergraduate teaching. I also appreciate the formatting—with cultural information and allusions to other authors in footnote and more technical information on the manuscript in endnote. A helpful bibliography is also included. --Kristen Day, Augustana CollegeAccurate and fresh translations of the two earliest Greek novels. . . . A keen textual critic himself, Trzaskoma has published a number of contributions on the novels, offering improvements to the text and identifying additional allusions to classical authors. He includes endnotes to both translations detailing his own conjectures and differences with Reardon and Sullivan, all of which bespeaks a complete reexamination of the texts in preparation for his translations. Although . . . designed for undergraduate courses where these novels will be read by Greekless students, every effort has been made to provide as much information about difficulties in the texts as possible, so these translations will be useful to those interested in the Greek text as well. An unpretentious introduction that will be very appropriate and useful to students reading ancient novels for the first time covers judiciously the major issues relevant to getting started with these stories. . . . It is valuable to read [these two novels] together, and this new text will make that easy and inexpensive to do. --Stephen A. Nimis, Miami University, in The Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Book SynopsisOvid's Metamorphoses gains its ideal twenty-first-century herald in Stanley Lombardo's bracing translation of a wellspring of Western art and literature that is too often treated, even by poets, as a mere vehicle for the scores of myths it recasts and transmits rather than as a unified work of art with epic-scale ambitions of its own. Such misconceptions are unlikely to survive a reading of Lombardo's rendering, which vividly mirrors the brutality, sadness, comedy, irony, tenderness, and eeriness of Ovid's vast world as well as the poem’s effortless pacing. Under Lombardo's spell, neither Argus nor anyone else need fear nodding off.The translation is accompanied by an exhilarating Introduction by W. R. Johnson that unweaves and reweaves many of the poem’s most important themes while showing how the poet achieves some of his most brilliant effects.An analytical table of contents, a catalog of transformations, and a glossary are also included.Trade ReviewStanley Lombardo successfully matches Ovid's human drama, imaginative brio, and irresistible momentum; and Ralph Johnson’s superb Introduction to Ovid's 'narratological paradise' is a bonus to this new and vigorous translation that should not be missed. Together, Introduction and text bring out the delightful unpredictability of Ovid's 'history of the world' down to his times.--Elaine Fantham, Giger Professor of Latin, Emerita, Princeton UniversityLombardo's translation is the most readable I’ve seen. . . . Its language is modern, accessible, and unpretentious. . . . I can imagine reading all the way through this version with students. I also admire the catalog of transformations . . . and, as usual, an Introduction by Ralph Johnson is worth the price of the book.--Margaret Musgrove, University of Central OklahomaA superb teaching text. The translation is readable, witty, and very accessible to today’s students. The glossary is useful, and Johnson’s essay is a great introduction to Ovid.--John Makowski, Loyola University, Chicago

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Book SynopsisThe Essential Metamorphoses, Stanley Lombardo's abridgment of his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, preserves the epic frame of the poem as a whole while offering the best-known tales in a rendering remarkable for its clarity, wit, and vigor. While making no pretense of offering an experience comparable to that of reading the whole of Ovid’s self-styled history from the world's first origins down to my own time, this practical and judicious selection of myths at the heart of Roman mythology and literature yet manages to relate many of the most fascinating episodes in that world-historical march toward the Age of Augustus--and is accompanied by an Introduction that deftly sets them in their cosmological, theological, and Augustan contexts.

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Book SynopsisThe Essential Metamorphoses, Stanley Lombardo's abridgment of his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, preserves the epic frame of the poem as a whole while offering the best-known tales in a rendering remarkable for its clarity, wit, and vigor. While making no pretense of offering an experience comparable to that of reading the whole of Ovid’s self-styled history from the world's first origins down to my own time, this practical and judicious selection of myths at the heart of Roman mythology and literature yet manages to relate many of the most fascinating episodes in that world-historical march toward the Age of Augustus--and is accompanied by an Introduction that deftly sets them in their cosmological, theological, and Augustan contexts.

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Book SynopsisCoal mines have become rare, but the miners of Germinal are immortal. This new edition of the novel, with a translation by Raymond MacKenzie, is an exquisite tribute to their work, their misery and their eventual revolt. In his introduction, David Baguley--one of the most respected authorities on the work of Zola--brilliantly illuminates the genetic, historical and aesthetic aspects of the novel. His lucid, sensitive and critical gaze highlights the real secrets of the work: its underlying anthropological and social investigation, the dark power of the tragic imagination and the brightness of symbolic and mythic intuitions. --Henri Mitterand, Professor Emeritus, Columbia UniversityTrade ReviewRaymond MacKenzie's elegant new translation of Emile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel's colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator. David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature. --Stephen Kern, Humanities Distinguished Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University

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Book SynopsisCoal mines have become rare, but the miners of Germinal are immortal. This new edition of the novel, with a translation by Raymond MacKenzie, is an exquisite tribute to their work, their misery and their eventual revolt. In his introduction, David Baguley--one of the most respected authorities on the work of Zola--brilliantly illuminates the genetic, historical and aesthetic aspects of the novel. His lucid, sensitive and critical gaze highlights the real secrets of the work: its underlying anthropological and social investigation, the dark power of the tragic imagination and the brightness of symbolic and mythic intuitions. --Henri Mitterand, Professor Emeritus, Columbia UniversityTrade ReviewRaymond MacKenzie's elegant new translation of Emile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel's colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator. David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature. --Stephen Kern, Humanities Distinguished Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University

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Book SynopsisThe first English language translation of Bedier's classic work in nearly seventy years, this volume is the only edition that provides ancillary materials to help the reader understand the history of the legend and Bedier's method in creating his classic retelling.Trade ReviewThis edition stands out because it is not a reworking of Belloc's version but a translation of Bedier's actual text. Gone are archaic spellings (The Little Fakry Bell becomes "The Enchanted Bell") and abstruse terms (the Tintagel Minster now reads as the church at Tintagel). Gallagher provides a brief, informative introduction, useful glossaries of proper names and specialized terms, and five well-selected texts about the Tristan legend, including a haunting scene Bedier composed but chose not to use. Beautifully written, this modern English translation proves once again that the love of Tristan and Iseut endures beyond all limits of time and space. Summing up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above. --C. B. Kerr, Vassar College, in CHOICEA labor of love, like all of his work, Edward J. Gallagher's engaging new translation of Joseph Bedier's celebrated romance is the sparkling centerpiece of a volume that features an enlightening and erudite introduction, a selective bibliography, Bedier's prefatory note, and two glossaries. A most welcome appendix includes English translations of Gaston Paris' original preface, two articles by Bedier, Adolph Brisson's early review of the romance, and—as a final surprise—Bedier's previously unpublished Hall of Images scene. Gallagher generously offers in one handy volume an inestimable boon to scholars, teachers, and students, who now have at their fingertips the resources to appreciate fully Bedier's signal accomplishment. --Joan Tasker Grimbert, Ordinary Professor of French and Medieval Studies, Catholic University of America[This] slim paperback introduces non-specialists to the medieval French Tristan and Iseut stories in clear, modern prose. The lucid and engaging translation, with its helpful introduction and appended articles, is an excellent introduction to the beloved romance as well as a welcome tool for teaching it to undergraduates. --Tracy Adams, University of Auckland, in H-France Review

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