Customer Reviews

Guide to Greek Drama

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This must be the worst guide ever (or so far) to Greek drama. For a 2001 book, the cheap printing format (what you would expect from obscure publishers 50-60 years ago) is embarrassing: the font is that of a typewriter; not surprisingly, titles are underlined, rather than italicized; blank and half-full pages are all over the place. The general reader - for whom it is intended - will not only be disappointed, but also misinformed: the introduction couldn't be more miserly; the approach to each work alternates unprofessionally between summary and analysis in a confusing way that hardly helps the newcomer; Stagman's conclusions on the dramatists and their plays are laughably stilted; he latinizes and even changes some titles (OEDIPUS REX, HECUBA, HERCULES MAD); that the authorship of PROMETHEUS BOUND is doubtful isn't even questioned: here, Aeschylus IS the writer; he (Stagman, not Aeschylus) also gets his facts wrong: for him, SUPPLIANTS (rather than - as widely accepted - PERSIANS) is the earliest extant play. This from (I quote from the back cover) 'a Shakespearean and Classical research scholar': I wonder (but won't spend a penny on) what Stagman's Shakespeare publications are like.