The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

Good quality, easy to read, heavy but not unnecessary. Good quality of footnotes throughout.

O livro é bom, mas chegou todo amassado....

There must have been some mistake. I received one copy shortly after ordering, and a second one several weeks after. There would have been no disadvantage to me except that I had to pay custom fees of 7.28 EUR for the second copy! So the price of this book ended up significantly higher than I should have paid for it, since the second copy is of absolutely no use to me.The copies themselves are fine, with some minor imperfections.The book itself seems like a very valuable, organised and satisfying selection of the greek plays.

I would assume that most people looking at this book would be familiar with the Greek tragedies, the playwrights and some of the context to the world of the Ancient Greeks and the associated mythology. For these people, as the blurb describes, having a collection of these plays together, with the new translations and perspectives, is going to be both useful and exciting.However, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to absolutely anyone with a passion for reading, even if you have no familiarity with the Greek plays. It is absolutely fantastic! I can say this because, before reading this book, my knowledge of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides was, shamefully, just a vague awareness of their existence.The introductions to the plays are superbly written and in just a few pages manage to explain the background and context to each play (each playwright references Greek customs, older myths and mirror contemporary affairs) and also set out a brief synopsis to the play which makes it so much more accessible to the novice. Not only that, but there are numerous footnotes throughout each play in the difficult sections, explaining some of the untranslatable words, the character's actions and references they make and pointing out any dubious lines that may have been added later.It may seem a daunting or intimidating subject (I bought it half expecting to not be able to complete it) but it is one of the easiest, most intelligible and fascinating books I have had the chance to read and if you have any curiosity at all for the Ancient Greeks, mythology, history in general or the human condition, I would urge you to read it too!I have used Amazon for years and this book inspired me to write my first review.

Haven't read 'em all, of course, but the sampling so far has been very satisfactory. Emily Wilson and Mary Lefkowitz do a great job with the Euripides plays. Wilson has done (btw) what is to my mind the most readable translation of Homer's Odyssey. This is a notable crew of translators, and I want to tell you: These plays are slam-bang stuff. These translations help you to understand how very entertaining they must have been in their day. They still have tremendous entertainment power.