Customer Reviews

Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides (New York Review Books)

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I've owned copies of Euripides all my life and never got around to reading them, but when Grief Lessons came across my desk last week, I was compelled to read straight through it. The title alone speaks of Carson's special talent for reaching the heart of the matter. Grief Lessons. The layout of her character's dialogue, too, flows back and forth along the margins of the page so that your eye moves easily down the text. The characters speak simply, without flourishes, without annoying Victorian poetic touches. Grief Lessons opens up Euripides to you so clearly that you can hear the characters weeping and shouting at each other on the stage of your mind. At the same time, so simple is Carson's translation that her words have an open ended flexibility that let you imagine them being pitched almost any way. Is Admetus a typical egocentric or an oaf? I'd always felt sorry for Hippolytus, cursed unfairly by his father. Now I'd like to curse him myself. I've never seen pomposity in a youth so clearly shown in a play. Moreover, Euripides lived at the end of Greece's golden age. His cynicism of the gods and heroes plays very appropriately on the stage of today.

No one writes about eros and "Necessity" (or the Greeks, Common Sense) their twists of irony, and the destructiveness of revenge as does Anne Carson. These plays are as relevant today as they were when written. The translations are fluent, singing poetry. The short prefaces are dynamite. Reflective and provocative. I'm rereading her other books. They are each one inspiring and unique. She is one of our best poets, and philosophers. Whenever my mind is dull, I reach over and pick up Desecration or Irony and Glass.

This translation of four plays by Euripedes is brilliant, clean and clear, without pretension. It offers the direct gaze of an Athenian at human emotion and human fate, which is considered a matter of luck more than character. For the Athenians matters of state and import are rooted in the family, where everything begins.

Anne Carson's translation is lucid and clear. It is a wonderful addition to the cannon of the translations of the great poet Euripides. Her opening and closing remarks to this text are witty and provide wonderful framing questions regarding the time in which the poems were written, the questions and themes explored and surrounding the plays as well as creative insight into the mindset of the great playwright. Each play is opened with an introduction and framing issues and questions as well as some brief background notes.

This is a wonderful translation and edition and would recommend it to all.

There is so much blood letting in these plays I would hate to be the stage manager. What a clean up after every performance.
Seriously folks...
The plays are spellbinding. The insights into what motivates human beings are brilliant. I enjoyed reading these plays 10 times more than I ever thought I would. I read the review inThe New Yorker and thought I'd take a chance. (I don't normally read the classics)
I gave it to my wife who loved the plays as well.
Great job.