40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Student Edition, October 31, 2002
This review is from: Four Plays by Aristophanes: The Birds; The Clouds; The Frogs; Lysistrata (Meridian classics) (Paperback)
This book is physically constructed like a student edition -- i.e., cheaply. The paper is cheap and thick, the ink thick and sometimes blotchy, with that great newspaper smell. If you're looking for a lovely edition of Aristophanes to sit on the mantle with your nice books, this is not.
The text is also organized like a student edition. The translations are great, lively, readable and fun. Each of the four plays is followed by a commentary, with textual and contextual explanation (pointing out Greek jokes that couldn't be translated, explaining Athenian politics, etc.). The back of the book is a glossary of names, places and institutions. The aids are clear and very helpful, especially for first time readers.
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
the best translators around, March 22, 2001
This review is from: Four Plays by Aristophanes: The Birds; The Clouds; The Frogs; Lysistrata (Meridian classics) (Paperback)
If you're loooking for a good collection of Aristophenes for casual use or reference, this is it. These translations are excellent, far better than the so-so translations that Aristophenes usually recieves. Highly recommended.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Arrowsmith Edition, June 8, 2008
This review is from: Four Plays by Aristophanes: The Birds; The Clouds; The Frogs; Lysistrata (Meridian classics) (Paperback)
Four Plays by Aristophanes / 0-452-00717-8
This edition features wonderful translations of "The Clouds", "The Birds", "Lysistrata", and "The Frogs". The humor and satire is well-managed within the translation, particularly within (my favorite) "Lysistrata". The bantering dialogue within the play is hilarious from the exhortations of the women to their fellow sisters to abstain from sex with their men (regardless of their own strong, womanly desires) to the tongue-in-cheek dialogue between a teasing wife and her impatient husband, to the final division of land to be 'presented' in the form of a nude lady acting as a visual aid.
The four plays are described in this edition as follows:
THE CLOUDS: The most controversial of Aristophanes' plays, it is a brilliant caricature of the philosopher Socrates, seen as a wily sophist who teaches men to cheat through cunning argument.
THE BIRDS: This portrayal of a flawed utopia called Cloudcuckooland is an enchanting escape into the world of free-flying fantasy that explores the eternal dilemmas of man on earth.
LYSISTRATA: In the twenty-first year of the Peloponnesian War, the women of Athens and Sparta, tired of the incessant fighting between their men, resolve to withhold sex from their husbands until peace is settled.
THE FROGS: Visiting the underworld, the god Dionysus seeks the counsel of the dead tragedians Aeschylus and Euripides on how to bring good writing back to Athens. A fierce debate - full of scathing insults and literary satire - ensues between the two dramatists.
~ Ana Mardoll
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