Best Medieval Literature
Provides everything necessary to learn or teach Old Norse and runes. Prof. Byock teaches Old Norse, the Icelandic sagas, Viking history and archaeology and directs the Mosfell Archaeological Project (MAP) in Iceland.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A reviewer below complained about the amount of text given over to history and culture; in my mind, this is what makes this book so enjoyable."
"The only thing wrong is that there is a limited translation dictionary so he has to look a lot up."
"Just wish it also came as kindle format... easier to carry!"
"A good enough language primer."
"Yes, there is a lot of history and culture in English, but it actually adds to the language study."
"It is not an "immersion course" in that much of it is about Old Norse rather than being mostly in Old Norse, but that is what most people will likely be looking for who have no expectation of achieving some kind of conversational fluency: as advertised, it is for people want to get the vocabulary and structural familiarity they need to be able to read the sagas."
"Jesse Byock answered all of my questions about how the vowel sounds were written."
"It includes a "dictonary" of word for word translations alphabetically, including sections on the most frequently used words."
Set around the turn of the last millennium, these stories depict with an astonishingly modern realism the lives and deeds of the Norse men and women who first settled Iceland and of their descendants, who ventured further west--to Greenland and, ultimately, the coast of North America itself. This volume offers nine full sagas and six tales, all new translations by various hands and all part of The Complete Sagas of the Icelanders, also edited by Thorsson.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"So, in order to save anyone I can some time, and possibly money, I've listed all the sagas and tales included in this book here: Egil's Saga. The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal. The Saga of the People of Laxardal. Bolli Bollason's Tale. The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey's Godi. The Saga of the Confederates. Gisli Sursson's Saga. The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue. The Saga of Ref the Sly. The Saga of the Greenlanders. Eirik the Red's Saga. The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck. The Tale of Halldor Snorrason II. The Tale of Sarcastic Halli. The Tale of Thorstein Shiver. The Tale of Audun from the West Fjords. The Tale of the Story-Wise Icelander. I hope that you find this list helpful!"
"These island forbears include ancestors from Iceland and Norway - many of them original Norse fishermen, traders and even Vikings."
"Excellent selections from the complete sagas of Icelanders."
"Exactly what I expected..."
"I WOULD like to see a set of the COMPLETE Icelandic sagas however."
"The understatement in Icelandic sagas makes reading them a hoot."
For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. Meanwhile, back in the future, modern science shows itself infinitely superior in its response to epidemics, but human nature evidences no similar evolution, and scapegoating is still alive and well in a campaign against "infected foreigners."p.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is my second time reading the book."
"A history student is transported back in time to what was believed to be the early 1300's, but instead she ends up being sent to England in 1348, just when the outbreak of the Black Plague occurs in the countryside. Because she has received vaccines against most dangerous pathogens, including the Black Plague, she is protected...but the family she has grown to know and care about are impacted, as well as the clergyman who 'rescued' her when she came through the transportation machine with an influenza she had been exposed to. In the meantime, her mentor who is dealing with the influenza outbreak in modern life, is worried, because the first person to become sick with the flu was the technician who sent the young woman historian back in time."
"Word of advice-if a book is by Connie Willis, read it."
"We choose this book for our book club a couple of months ago, and initially I was not impressed with the idea of reading this one."
"For someone like me, an amateur historian, the idea of being able to travel back in time to actually observe a given time period would be heaven; but this book also points out the hazards in doing so."
"This tells the story in an engaging way that makes the experience both personal and as horrifying as I'm sure it was."
"So, although she was writing a futuristic novel about time travel, the level of communications available to the people who are supposed to be the "current" time basically involves using foot messengers and stationary phones (no mobile technology) to communicate."
"I love Connie Willis books."
Best Classic Roman Literature
The revised edition of Grube's classic translation follows and furthers Grube's noted success in combining fidelity to Plato’s text with natural readability, while reflecting the fruits of new scholarship and insights into Plato's thought since publication of the first edition in 1974. Reeve has taken the excellent Grube translation and, without sacrificing accuracy, rendered it into a vivid and contemporary style. In the cave of translations, Reeve’s revision of Grube's Republic is closest to the sun.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"His joint book with Terry Penner on the Lysis, for instance, falls far short of giving us an unbiased, expansive, authorative commentary on the dialogue, especially when compared to more sober competitors like Michael Bordt's in the Göttingen Plato. His renderings of Plato's Politicus (Statesman) and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, the latter published with Sarah Broadie, are probably the most authoritative around. In general, translations of the Republic usually err on the side of either trying too heavily to recreate the literary qualities of the original, or miss out so much of that detail because they try to be super exact on technicalities, that in either case the English falls far short of giving us a good understanding of Plato's Greek. Others, like Cornford, Waterfield, or Grube (even when revised under Reeve) can be safely avoided, for having the translators' hobby horses intrude on and mar the main text. At the same time, Rowe's translation comes with seven hundred footnotes, and these are meticulously researched and show him on top of the current scholarly game. Mistranslations of these lines have encouraged generations of interpretors to saddle Plato with the view that one can posit a (Platonic) Form for each general term, no matter how gerrymandered. A Platonic dialogue proceeds, usually, with (alternating) dominant speakers eliciting agreement or disagreement on particular points from their interlocutors. While Rowe's notes are characteristically informative of what's going on in these passages, and warn readers of the potential inconsistenties on artefact Forms, his translation looks rather unsure, tendentious even. In Republic, book X, translators like Lee (1974) and Griffith (2000) render σκευή, not as furnishing, but as furniture, given that Plato illustrates the term by the examples of a table and a couch. As far as the publisher is concerned, Penguin can be congratulated for sponsoring a new translation so soon after revising Lee's twice in the past ten years, under the careful leadership of Melissa Lane and Rachana Kamtekar. I can't speak for Lane's, but Kamtekar's version of Lee offered helpful diagrams and illustrations in notes and appendices. Undergraduates, not to mention lay readers, find a lot of Plato's text hardgoing without the occasional image to explain how things 'hang together'. Kamtekar's edition had helpful illustrations on such points, and retained Lee's wonderful introductions to sub-sections of the main text, which set the scene and pre-empted some of the more current misunderstandings that twentieth and twenty first century readers are prone to. While I'm glad to see Verity Harte's and Myles Burnyeat's efforts recognized in this area, Alexander Nehamas' older - and equally good if not superior - offerings have been chopped off. The same is true for a great many other essays and books that, I feel, deserves mention to a first time audience coming to Plato."
"As a student and owner of the Hackett Complete Works Plato Complete Works avoid the Grube translation and embrace the literal translation of Bloom."
"Easton Press books often reside on the shelves of those more interested in presenting an image of oneself rather than being read."
"Reeve's translation of Plato Republic is easy reading for a follower of ancient Greek philosophers."
"I really loved Bloom's version of the republic.."
"One of the finest translations of the Republic, the central work in the Platonic corpus, with a solid introduction and helpful notes."
"Translation navigates well between remaining true to the literal meaning of the original and producing fluid conversational prose updated for twenty-first century readers."
"In it we find Plato through Socrates discussing the perfect society and reasoning his way through why things should be the way he suggests."
Best Classic Greek Literature
A lean, fleet-footed translation that recaptures Homer’s “nimble gallop” and brings an ancient epic to new life. “A staggeringly superior translation―true, poetic, lively and readable, and always closely engaged with the original Greek―that brings to life the fascinating variety of voices in Homer’s great epic.”. - Richard F. Thomas, Harvard University. “Emily Wilson has produced a clear, vigorous, sensitive Odyssey that conveys both the grand scale and the individual pathos of this foundational story. Emily Wilson has convincingly answered this call: hers is a vital Odyssey for the twenty-first century that brings into rhythmic English the power, dignity, variety, and immediacy of this great poem.”. - Laura Slatkin, New York University.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"More than in other translations, the Odyssey comes across here strongly as a historical document, the product of a culture from a particular time and place. Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost. when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy, and where he went, and who he met, the pain. he suffered in the storms at sea, and how. he worked to save his life and bring his men. back home. Compare Wilson's language with that of the opening of Robert Fitzgerald's translation: "Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story. of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold. on the proud height of Troy. He saw the townlands. and learned the minds of many distant men, and weathered many bitter nights and days. in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only. to save his life, to bring his shipmates home. Fitzgerald translates it as "skilled in all ways of contending," and Fagles as "the man of twists and turns.""
"I have read and taught the Odyssey at least five times over the past twenty years. And Emily Wilson's version is a godsend."
"The first stanzas will make you perk up and realize that this is the most interesting translation of the Odyssey for our time."
"but at age 81 I consider The Odyssey the greatest book I have ever read, for itself and for its influence on my ways of thinking and of living. The main reason is that, in comparison to the others, it is best at creating the mood of an ancient, epic, poem. I love it when he repeats, for the nth time, "Son of Laertes and the Gods of old, Odysseus, master of land ways and sea ways..." and other such formulaic hints that we are not reading a James Bond or even a Scott Fitzgerald, nor Salinger, nor McEwan, nor certainly a Hemingway novel -- the content should perhaps be enough to distinguish Odyssey as the great epic it is, but I like the complementing embellishments of Fitzgerald's version. For a more important difference, compare the climax, as Odysseus is about to slaughter the suitors: Fitzgerald has him say: "You yellow dogs, you thought I'd never make it. home from the land of Troy. But Fitzgerald focuses on breaking the rules, on disrespecting the mores of their time: the suitors were contemptuous of both the gods, and the opinions of their fellow men."
"This translation offers new insight into Greek culture and the story of Odysseus."
"Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey is breathtakingly good."
Best Ancient & Classical Literature
Simple in style and sincere in tone, they record for all time the height reached by pagan aspiration in its effort to solve the problem of conduct. The book, which Hays calls, fondly, a "haphazard set of notes," is indicative of the role of philosophy among the ancients in that it is "expected to provide a 'design for living.'". Hays's introduction, which sketches the life of Marcus Aurelius (emperor of Rome A.D. 161-180) as well as the basic tenets of stoicism, is accessible and jaunty.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In this case, the Hays translation is the hardcover, while the authors who translated the paperback and Kindle versions aren't specified."
"Compare the translations of the first paragraph for example: This version: Of my grandfather Verus I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion. Of my mother I have learned to be religious, and bountiful; and to forbear, not only to do, but to intend any evil; to content myself with a spare diet, and to fly all such excess as is incidental to great wealth."
"Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard, accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”. Before I get into details, I must say that reading Meditations was one of the hardest, but most rewarding experiences in my own personal growth. There is no reason to feel unhappy, unfulfilled, or unappreciated , and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius offers advice to anyone who is looking for self help, self love, and a rational way of directing life. Sharing his seat of power is the one move that summarizes Marcus Aurelius’s entire life; the fear of power and the duty embedded in him through his interest in Stoicism, a philosophy that grounds itself on self-restraint, reason, and fate."
"great book from a great man."
"This is a nice philosophical read."
"Life is Life and we have to make the best we can of it, and, not take it all so seriously."
"Everyone in this day and age is stupid."
"This is a beautifully packaged classic, with all the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius wrapped up in a pretty little hardcover."