Subject Tag: really old classics

The Iliad by Homer, trans. Robert Fagles: Love and Hate But Mostly Love

Filed under: Fiction, Poetry, Reviews

I thought reading The Iliad by Homer (translated by Robert Fagles) would be a chore. Even after I reviewed four different translations and chose one I felt was “best,” I told myself I would have to read at least one chapter a day, just to get through it before it was due at the library. [...]

The Iliad by Homer: The Story

Filed under: Fiction, Poetry, Reviews

When I decided to read The Iliad, I knew essentially nothing about it.
All I knew was that it was Greek, it was written by Homer, and that it was somehow a precursor to The Odyssey (which I read in high school). Having read The Iliad, I can say now that while it certainly is Greek, [...]

Fun Facts about Homer

Filed under: Blogging Miscellany, Meme, Non-Reviews

I thought I’d participate in Weekly Geeks this week. In the wake of rethinking my “book blog goals,” as I talked about yesterday, I’ve decided I’m going to not do these weekly memes unless I already was going to post something like this anyway. (I haven’t been participating for weeks anyway; I have had so [...]

Iliad in Translation

Filed under: Fiction, Poetry, Reviews, Writing about Reading

What am I looking for when I read the Iliad this month? I’ve been wondering that, especially now that I have four translations before me. As I mentioned when I wrote about Aesop’s writers last week, a translation can make a big difference in how a story is portrayed.
I’m not against a literal translation, but [...]

Hippolytus by Euripides

Filed under: Drama, Reviews

What would a young man say or do if he learned that his step-mother had fallen in love with him?
In the play Hippolytus by Euripides, Hippolytus finds out that his step-mother has fallen for him. But what he doesn’t know is that the goddess Aphrodite has had her hand in these matters.

A few months ago, I read a version of Aesop’s Fables that I found online at Project Gutenberg, written and published in the early 1900s. I thought I’d read Aesop’s Fables.
I was interested, then, to read in chapter two (”Ingenuity and Authority”) of Seth Lerer’s Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter [...]

In his first chapter (”Speak, Child”) of Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter, Seth Lerer discusses the “infancy” of children’s literature. Such a study requires a review of children’s education, as that is the basis for children’s literature. Lerer discusses the classics (the “really old classics,” as I’ve dubbed them on [...]

My Really Old Classics Choices

Filed under: Challenges

I’m excited to delve into the world of Really Old Classics. By the end of next July, I hope to read five works. I don’t know what the others will be, but I intend for three of them to be:

The Illiad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
The Aeneid by Virgil

Yes, the basics.
Want to read some too? [...]

Really Old Classics Challenge Reviews

Filed under: Challenges

If you would like to share your reviews for the Really Old Classics Challenge, please leave a link to your post in the comments to this post.
If you do not have a blog, feel free to share your thoughts to the works you’ve read in the comments as well.
Thanks, and enjoy!

Really Old Classics Challenge

Filed under: Challenges

Children 2,000 years ago read and memorized Virgil and Homer, and Aesop’s Fables were common knowledge. Even 200 years ago these classics were widely read. Now, there are thousands of new books published each year. But what about those really old ones? Have we read those yet? Any of them?
That’s why I’ve decided to host [...]

About this blog

This blog is a collection of my thoughts about books and reading and reviews of books I've read. I'd love to hear your thoughts, too. Please share!

From October 2008-July 2009, I'm hosting the Really Old Classics Challenge.

Also, as an ongoing personal challenge, I'm reading all the works on the How to Read and Why reading list compiled by Harold Bloom. I'd love for you to either join me in this challenge or to follow along with me as I try to learn to read well.

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