Classics: A Very Short Introduction
by Mary Beard
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List Price: ££7.99
Our Price: ££2.78
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Oxford Paperbacks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 809
EAN: 9780192853851
ISBN: 0192853856
Label: Oxford Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 160
Publication Date: 2000-02-24
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
Studio: Oxford Paperbacks
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good and stimulating introduction
Comment: I like the concept of these books as they give a good introduction that strikes me a being neither too complicated nor too patronising. Enjoyable and stimulating read and made my journey to work go quicker.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic if you want to know about what Classics does
Comment: This book is really well written, entertaining and extremely thought provoking. It provides a whistlestop tour through the classical world in terms of how we study it, not the classical world itself. If you want lists and dates and what is taught at school as 'history', this is not the book for you.
The premise of the OUP Very Short Introduction To books is to take an expert who has something really interesting to say on a particular subject, whether it be bananas or the classical world and then get them to talk about their interest in the subject in an easy to digest 150 short pages. This is not clearly explained, and these books are often picked up by total novices expecting something like 'a dummies guide to'. Well, there are already 'dummies guides to' which do their job very well. These, in my opinion can be much more rewarding and thought provoking.
In this book, Beard and Henderson use the example of a classical temple site in Greek Arcadia and what we know about it to explore how we approach the study of classics. It roams through archaeology, sociology, religion, politics, study of language, poetry and literature and makes a compelling case for why classics are still relevant today and what they mean to us in modern times.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Modern classics
Comment: A novel take on 'the Classics' in a volume which avoids the usual emphasis on history and the arts. Instead, it focuses on such intangibles as identity in the ancient world, taking the Greek writer Pausanias as an example. Although he was was writing his 'Guidebook to Greece' more than two centuries after Greece had become a Roman colony, he chooses to write about Greek civilisation, architecture and history as though it were still independent of Roman influence. His silence on matters Roman speaks volumes and reminds us that reading between the lines is sometimes more revealing than the lines themselves.
Beard and Henderson make the point that Classics is not the study of a dead culture but a live, interactive process informed by the 'vast community of readers across the millenia'. Their book dwells on the friezes from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae - initially, at what seems too great a length, but for very good reason. The temple friezes, now exhibited at the British Museum, are independent blocks of marble that can be reassembled in a multitude of different ways. Bassae is therefore a metaphor for discovery and re-evaluation. Furthermore, the temple is set in Arcadia - a region of huge importance for literature, religion and philosophy, giving it further symbolic significance. As the authors suggest, the notion of Arcadia - sometimes paradise, sometimes brutish wilderness - is itself capable of multiple interpretation, like so may aspects of the ancient world. Each new generation's interpretations and insights shed extra light on, and themselves become part of, the classical heritage.
This unexpected emphasis on the historic reception of classics constitutes, perhaps, the book's major strength. It is an emphasis reflected in the concluding Timeline, two pages of which record events from 800 BCE to the Renaissance and the other two and a half pages to events such as the election of Dr Johnson to a Professorship at the RA (1770) and the publication of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose (1980).
Not everyone's cup of tea, perhaps, but a fresh and stimulating introduction to what can still seem a very elitist and exclusive area of study.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An interesting light read - sadly nothing more
Comment: This book is a nice, easy read, suitable for introducing classics as a subject. It is not, however, and academic introduction to classics or an introduction to classical literature. It covers the main fundementals (mythology, theatre, architecture etc.) briefly, so if its a detailed introduction to classics you are looking for, buy seperate specific books on each subject.
If you have a general interest in classics and want brief but broad knowledge, this book is a good starting point.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Failure
Comment: A book that manages to be a fascinating thought-provoking read and yet fail in its basic aim.
The book discusses our views of the classical world largely through the example of a temple at Bassae in Arcadia, a remote corner of south-western Greece. The emphasis of the book is on encouraging us to think about the gaps in knowledge and perception between our world and theirs and between expectation, imagination and reality. What were the slaves who built the temple like? Greek literature tells us nothing about them. What is the correct order of the stones slabs that make up a large frieze from the temple on display in the British Museum in London? How would the Greeks have seen this frieze? In the museum it's clean, brightly lit, at eye level and made of the smooth white marble many associate with the classical world. In situ it would have been high above the Greeks' heads, cobwebbed, dimly lit and painted, possibly quite gaudily.
This approach is interesting, engages the reader and provides food for thought. It makes the book a worthwhile and challenging read.
The book talks about the gap between reality and expectation but is also an example of it. I was expecting the book to tell me a little about classical Greek and Roman history, and provide information on Greek and Roman authors and their literature. I came out little wiser than I started however.
An interesting read but if you want a brief introduction to Classical literature and its 'main players' look elsewhere.
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