Description
Book SynopsisA new verse translation by award-winning poet Alicia Stallings of one of the foundational works of ancient Greece
TLS BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2018, selected by Rachel Hadas and Emily Wilson The ancient Greeks revered Hesiod, believing he had beaten Homer in a singing contest and that after his dead body was thrown to sea, it was brought back by dolphins. His
Works and Days is one of the most important early works of Greek poetry. Ostensibly written by the poet to chide his lazy brother, it recounts the story of Pandora’s box and humanity’s decline since the Golden Age, and can be read as a celebration of rural life and a hymn to work. Alicia Stallings’s new translation breathes new life into Hesiod’s work, rendering its vivid poetry for a new generation of classics readers.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than
Trade ReviewStallings's new translation of Hesiod's
Works and Days - witty, gritty, and unsettlingly relevant - is not to be missed. Toil; corruption in high places; injustice; the prevailing sense that things are getting worse - none of these prevents the Muses' chosen poets from doing their indispensable and soul-refreshing work -- Rachel Hadas * The Times Literary Supplement *
A. E. Stallings brings Hesiod back to life in her rhyming translation of
Works and Days, which mingles farming tips, myths and evocation of the seasons: 'when first the cuckoo cuckoos in the oak'. Stallings's lively and learned notes make it a treat * The Times *
A. E. Stallings new verse translation of
Works and Days for Penguin is a splendid development upon a recent flurry of Hesiod translation and poetic response ... Brilliantly sensitive ... Stallings's translation triumphs * The Oxonian Review *
Mixing rhyme and assonance, this is a
Works and Days for the age of rap. By translating Hesiod as poetry, Stallings encourages us to realize that the poem should not just be the object of scholarly study, but can be read aloud for fun -- Armand D'Angour * The Times Literary Supplement *
Stallings is a true poet ... She finds enormous breadth and depth of resource in her open couplets ... No reader of the best poetry should miss this
Works and Days -- Professor Peter McDonald * Literary Matters *
Stallings makes a home for Hesiod in the English poetic landscape, where he can live the sort of idiosyncratic life that he enjoys in Greek, at once timeless and contemporary ... In prose, she makes for an appealing guide, elegant and accessible, intelligent and breezy ... A wonderful book -- Christopher Childers * New Criterion *
A Brilliant rendition of a fountainhead epic ... For clarity and class and prosody that sings through its print, Stallings' Hesiod is unrivaled. Endear yourselves to the immortals and read this compelling translation that introduces with a formalist literary flourish that fragile Western Civilization which still, to this day, nurtures the best of artistic creation * Somerville Times *
