Product Description: “We can begin with a kiss, though this will not turn out to be a love story, at least not a love story of anything like the usual kind.” So begins A Very Queer Family Indeed, which introduces us to the extraordinary Benson family...read more

Product Description: It was destroyed nearly 2,000 years ago, and yet the Temple of Jerusalem―cultural memory, symbol, and site―remains one of the most powerful, and most contested, buildings in the world. This glorious structure, imagined and re-imagined, reconsidered and reinterpreted again and again over two millennia, emerges in all its historical, cultural, and religious significance in Simon Goldhill’s account...read more

Product Description: The Victorian era was the high point of literary tourism. Writers such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Sir Walter Scott became celebrities, and readers trekked far and wide for a glimpse of the places where their heroes wrote and thought, walked and talked...read more

Product Description: How did the Victorians engage with the ancient world? Victorian Culture and Classical Antiquity is a brilliant exploration of how the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome influenced Victorian culture. Through Victorian art, opera, and novels, Simon Goldhill examines how sexuality and desire, the politics of culture, and the role of religion in society were considered and debated through the Victorian obsession with antiquity...read more

From the stages of Broadway and London to university campuses, Paris, and the bourgeoning theaters of Africa, Greek tragedy remains constantly in production. This global revival, in addition to delighting audiences, has highlighted both the promise and the pitfalls of staging ancient masterpieces in the modern age. Addressing the issues and challenges these performances pose, renowned classicist Simon Goldhill responds here to the growing demand for a comprehensive guide to staging Greek tragedy today.In crisp and spirited prose, Goldhill explains how Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles conceived their works in performance and then summarizes everything we know about how their tragedies were actually staged. The heart of his book tackles the six major problems facing any company performing these works today: the staging space and concept of the play; the use of the chorus; the actor’s role in an unfamiliar style of performance; the place of politics in tragedy; the question of translation; and the treatment of gods, monsters, and other strange characters of the ancient world. Outlining exactly what makes each of these issues such a pressing difficulty for modern companies, Goldhill provides insightful solutions drawn from his nimble analyses of some of the best recent productions in the United States, Britain, and Continental Europe.One of the few experts on both Greek tragedy and contemporary performance, Goldhill uses his unique background and prodigious literary skill to illuminate brilliantly what makes tragedy at once so exciting and so tricky to get right. The result will inspire and enlighten all directors and performers—not to mention the growing audiences—of ancient Greek theater.

Product Description: This landmark collection presents a wide variety of viewpoints on the value and role of reception theory within the modern discipline of classics. A pioneering collection, looking at the role reception theory plays, or could play, within the modern discipline of classics...read more

A noted classicist offers a survey of the Greek and Roman roots of everything from hard bodies to political systems, tracing follies and philosophical questions through the centuries to the birthplace of Western civilization.

A detailed analysis of Aeschylus's trilogy focuses on communication, paradox, and the law, and makes use of modern anthropological and literary theory

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This is a study of how sex and sexuality were written about in the first centuries of this era, a central period in the history of sexuality. Writing with the same wit and verve as the ancient writers he engages with, Simon Goldhill shows how the standard accounts of sexuality in this period are distorted by ignoring the sexy, ironic and often bizarre texts of the ancient novel, erotic poetry and humorous dialogues. (view table of contents)

Product Description: This is the first general introduction in English to Aeschylus's Oresteia, the most important and most influential of all Greek dramas. It discusses the Greek drama festival and the social and political background of Greek tragedy, and offers a reading of this central trilogy...read more