18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Good, Solid, Readable, Beautiful, Understandable Translation, April 10, 2009
This review is from: The Consolation of Philosophy (Hardcover)
I have not read this edition, but I own it and plan to this summer. Why am I reviewing it now? Because, well, nobody else has.
I've read the Consolation before, in several versions (Watts, James, Green), and this is the only one that I've seen that has a decent introduction by Seth Lerer, a must for readers unfamiliar with the text, with Boethius as a man, and with the time he lived in. Also, a short bibliography is given, which is always useful.
Additionally, for $15, this is a hardback. Hardback beats softcover any day of the week. The dust jacket has magnificent design by Tim Jones, showing almost the book being uncovered, revealed, out of the darkness of time--and as something precious and personal, something that was once often carried around for comfort and solace.
This edition mimics that. The pages are a nice ivory--not the harsh white of other editions, in a good readable serif font. The book is small and dignified, and the font is large enough to read easily and small enough to not be cloying.
Finally, as to the text--and again, I have finished reading this translation--the poetic sections of Boethius's work are translated _into poetry_. The poems are not translated into rhyming couplets, as some other translators have done, but have a good cadence of assonance and alliteration.
UPDATE:
I have now read this version, and teach out of it. Since my initial review, I've also seen the Oxford Walsh translation, but it sounds a little stuffy for my tastes, and oddly uses verse-style numbering in the prose passages. Aside from these issues, the quality of the paper and the book seems quite insufficient--pulpy and floppy, especially compared to the firm crispness of this edition. Of course, that translation is available on the Kindle, so if you're looking for a modern translation you can use digitally, that's your best bet.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A worthy edition of a worthy book, October 19, 2010
This review is from: The Consolation of Philosophy (Hardcover)
I begin my comments with two disclaimers: (1) I would not presume to "review" Boethius, but I can offer a few superficial comments on this edition which may be of use to potential buyers; and (2) I do not know Latin, but can read Boethius only in translation.
There were many passages in this translation that I recognized as being definitely idiomatically modern. Those passages felt anachronistic to me and made me doubt to some extent that I was reading "the real thing", at least as much as one can ever read "the real thing" in translation. On the whole, though, allowing for that one not insignificant complaint, I recommend this translation for its fine, clear style.
The evident modernity of the translation made me want to read some other translation, so that when I was finished with this one, then just for something different, I chose Chaucer's Middle English translation, "Boece". I could not have successfully read "The Consolation of Philosophy" for the first time in Middle English, but I can read it in M.E. the second time. I am still chipping away at that, but so far Chaucer's translation seems distinctly more emotional to me than Slavitt's, and thus conveys a very different feeling. Maybe Chaucer and Slavitt have both impressed the emotional styles of their own ages onto the text? But how would I ever know? In any case, if the style of Slavitt's translation made me at once mostly happy, and yet needing to read another, then that is a sign of success for the translation.
As for Lerer's introduction, and also the physical quality of the book, I second the favorable comments of another reviewer, Mr. Allen Shull; see his review.
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