Overview

Twelve Voices from Greece and Rome is a book for all readers who want to know more about the literature that underpins Western civilization. Chistopher Pelling and Maria Wyke provide a vibrant and distinctive introduction to twelve of the greatest authors from ancient Greece and Rome, writers whose voices still resonate strongly across the centuries: Homer, Sappho, Herodotus, Euripides, Thucydides, Plato, Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Juvenal and Tacitus. To what vital ideas do these authors give voice? And why are we so often drawn to what they say even in modern times? Twelve Voices investigates these tantalizing questions, showing how these great figures from classical antiquity still address some of our most fundamental concerns in the world today (of war and courage, dictatorship and democracy, empire, immigration, city life, art, madness, irrationality, and religious commitment), and express some of our most personal sentiments (about family and friendship, desire and separation, grief and happiness). These twelve classical voices can sound both compellingly familiar and startlingly alien to the twenty-first century reader. Yet they remain suggestive and inspiring, despite being rooted in their own times and places, and have profoundly affected the lives of those prepared to listen to them right up to the present day.

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9780198768036

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Reviews

`Pelling and Wyke offer a rich farrago of literary interpretation, historical background, personal reminiscence and Nachleben... a lively and thought-provoking foray' Times Literary Supplement `...it is the 'voices', both of the texts under discussion and the scholars engaging with them, that make this a lively and thought-provoking foray into the thicket of classical literature. Twelve Voices offers no easy paths of interpretation but makes clear, again and again, how complex these texts are, how they resist formulaic readings, and how understandings of them change with changes of perspective.' James Romm, The Times Literary Supplement `engagingly personal essays' History Today `the book's tone is spot on, steering a steady course between concision and garrulousness' The Belgravia Residents Journal `an interesting book' The Writers Drawer `splendid book' Book of the year 2014, Telegraph `[L]ovely little anthology ... an engaging approach to ancient literature' Times Higher Education `We know now that we are driven to share knowledge and thought because, as a species, we can imagine the potential consequence of communicating ideas. How thrilling then to have the voices - and ideas - of twelve of the very greatest ancients communicated to us by two of the 21st century's finest classical scholars. Through the painstaking and pleasure-rich work of Pelling and Wyke here we learn both about the minds and, critically, the lives and histories of key players in the story of civilisation. Fresh scholarship is combined with a deep and charismatic understanding. What more could anyone ask for in one book?' Bettany Hughes `A wonderful reader's guide to classical literature: these ancient voices, so vividly brought to life by Pelling and Wyke, speak with freshness, immediacy and urgency.' Charlotte Higgins `these are delightful essays by very intelligent and approachable scholars ... Well worth reading, whether you think you know something about Homer or know you know nothing.' Keith Maclennan, Classics for All

In this engaging book, the authors make a powerful case for the enduring relevance of the Classics ... From the impact of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey on young men in the trenches of the Great War, to Sappho's intriguing and passionate verses ... Pelling and Wyke take us on an enlightening journey. JC, The Lady

Pelling and Wyke offer a rich farrago of literary interpretation, historical background, personal reminiscence and Nachleben... a lively and thought-provoking foray Times Literary Supplement ...it is the 'voices', both of the texts under discussion and the scholars engaging with them, that make this a lively and thought-provoking foray into the thicket of classical literature. Twelve Voices offers no easy paths of interpretation but makes clear, again and again, how complex these texts are, how they resist formulaic readings, and how understandings of them change with changes of perspective. James Romm, The Times Literary Supplement engagingly personal essays History Today the book's tone is spot on, steering a steady course between concision and garrulousness The Belgravia Residents Journal an interesting book The Writers Drawer splendid book Book of the year 2014, Telegraph [L]ovely little anthology ... an engaging approach to ancient literature Times Higher Education We know now that we are driven to share knowledge and thought because, as a species, we can imagine the potential consequence of communicating ideas. How thrilling then to have the voices - and ideas - of twelve of the very greatest ancients communicated to us by two of the 21st century's finest classical scholars. Through the painstaking and pleasure-rich work of Pelling and Wyke here we learn both about the minds and, critically, the lives and histories of key players in the story of civilisation. Fresh scholarship is combined with a deep and charismatic understanding. What more could anyone ask for in one book? Bettany Hughes A wonderful reader's guide to classical literature: these ancient voices, so vividly brought to life by Pelling and Wyke, speak with freshness, immediacy and urgency. Charlotte Higgins these are delightful essays by very intelligent and approachable scholars ... Well worth reading, whether you think you know something about Homer or know you know nothing. Keith Maclennan, Classics for All

Author Information

Christopher Pelling is Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford. He has worked and published extensively on Classical Greek historiography and biography. Among his numerous publications are Literary Texts and the Greek Historian (2000) and Plutarch and History: Eighteen Studies (2002). Maria Wyke is Professor of Latin at University College London. She has written extensively on Roman love poetry (collected in The Roman Mistress: Ancient and Modern Representations, 2002), on Julius Caesar (Caesar: A Life in Western Culture, 2007, and Caesar in the USA, 2012), and on ancient Rome in cinema (Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema and History, 1997).

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