Review (PDF) Theban Plays (Hackett Classics)
This volume offers the fruits of Peter Meineck and Paul Woodruff's dynamic collaboration on the plays of Sophocles' Theban cycle, presenting the translators' Oedipus Tyrannus (2000) along with Woodruff's Antigone (2001) and a muscular new Oedipus at Colonus by Meineck. Grippingly readable, all three translations combine fidelity to the Greek with concision, clarity, and powerful, hard-edged speech. Each play features foot-of-the-page notes, stage directions, and line numbers to the Greek. Woodruff's Introduction discusses the playwright, Athenian theatre and performance, the composition of the plays, and the plots and characters of each; it also offers thoughtful reflections on major critical interpretations of these plays.
Series: Hackett Classics
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (March 15, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0872205851
ISBN-13: 978-0872205857
Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.5 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #16,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Medieval #4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Ancient & Classical #8 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Performing Arts > Theater
After comparing numerous Theban Plays (Fagles, Lattimore, Roche, Fitzgerald and others) I came across the one on Hackett.I find it the most readable, comtemporary, up-to-date, powerful, poetic and most importantly...believable. It reads so realistically that I actually believe what the characters say...which makes me want to perform and see performed this edition by Meineck and Woodruff.The print and spacing is perfect, and not to mention the price!
Really liked this selection of plays that I had to read for a political theory class. Lots of really cool ideas are represented like the all consuming ability of power and it's ability to destroy the people who possess it. There's also references to the divine and prophesy that suggest that both an over-reliance on the divine and a sheer ignorance of the divine are recipes for untold disaster and misery. Concerning the study of politics, it suggests that man is subject to entities outside of his control and therefore is often quite fallible through advisors and his own overreaching pride to be greater than great and these failings prove to be a great undoing. Power proves a very intoxicating drug that corrupts even the greatest of men. As an added bonus to these great moral and political lessons, their actually a pretty entertaining and moving read as Antigone seeks to give her brother a proper burial because she sees him as a hero, while the King views him a traitor. The sixty or so pages of Antigone take us through a sorted ride as every character is dealt with some tragic loss. God, how I wish Hollywood screenwriters could devise something this cool.
Never did I think it possible that Antigone could be so completely deprived of its poetry and drama. Meineck and Woodruff's translation and, what I assume, are its attempts at modernization make it nearly impossible to detect the political interests of the play and its insights into the conflict between the private and the public spheres.
AWESOME
The stories are great, Antigone being one my favorites of the three. Was required to buy this for a class, and well it brought some memories back from the first time I read them.
The Three Theban Plays: Antigone - Oedipus the King - Oedipus at Colonus (Theban Plays of Sophocles - Antigone - Oedipus the King - Oedipus at Colonus) Theban Plays (Hackett Classics) The Theban Plays: King Oedipus; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone (Penguin Classics) The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus & other Bonus works The Theban Plays: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone (Dover Thrift Editions) The Theban Plays: "Oedipus the Tyrant"; "Oedipus at Colonus"; "Antigone" (Agora Editions) The Figaro Plays (Hackett Classics) Four Plays and Three Jokes (Hackett Classics) The Witches Alphabet: How to Write Theban for Beginner’s Brecht Collected Plays: 1: Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; Life of Edward II of England; & 5 One Act Plays (World Classics) (Vol 1) Ostrovsky: Plays Two: Plays 2 (Absolute Classics) A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados (Hackett Classics) The Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, Abridged (Hackett Classics) On Law, Morality and Politics, 2nd Edition (Hackett Classics) A Pioneer in Yokohama: A Dutchman's Adventures in the New Treaty Port (Hackett Classics) On Justice, Power, and Human Nature: Selections from The History of the Peloponnesian War (Hackett Classics) The First New Chronicle and Good Government, Abridged (Hackett Classics) Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline (Hackett Classics) The Song of Roland (Hackett Classics) Inferno (Hackett Classics)
