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Theophrastus: Characters

Theophrastus: Characters

Theophrastus: Characters

Theophrastus
James Diggle, University of Cambridge
December 2007
Available
Paperback
9780521045766

    Theophrastus' Characters is a collection of thirty short character-sketches of various types of individuals who walked the streets of Athens in the late fourth century BC. This edition presents a radically improved text for a unique work which had a profound influence on European literature. The translation is designed to be readable and reveals the nuances of the original Greek--through a comprehensive commentary that clarifies the often enigmatic references within the text.

    • Provides an improved text
    • Offers an alternative translation
    • Contains a comprehensive commentary on the work

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Its elegance makes it a useful introduction for students, while its comprehensive textual analysis should insure that it will be the substantial contribution to the literature on Theophrastus' engaging, puzzling Characters for some time to come.' Nancy Worman, Classical World

    ' This is a masterly achievement in virtually all respects, and one whose great wealth of erudition will make it an invaluable source of reference for anyone seriously concerned with the private and public psychologies of life in classical Athens.' Hermathena

    ‘… Diggle has elegantly repackaged in an inviting school edition his magisterial text, translation and commentary on Theophrastus: Characters that is fun to read and appropriate for a number of pedagogical applications.’ James J. Clauss, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

    See more reviews

    Product details

    December 2007
    Paperback
    9780521045766
    612 pages
    216 × 140 × 35 mm
    0.798kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Preface
    • Introduction:
    • 1. Theophrastus and his times
    • 2. The nature and purpose of the Characters
    • 3. Date
    • 4. Transmission
    • 5. Some texts and commentaries
    • Text and translation
    • Commentary
    • Abbreviations and bibliography
    • Indexes.
    • Theophrastus
    • Editor and translator
    • James Diggle , University of Cambridge

      James Diggle is Professor of Greek and Latin at Cambridge and a Fellow of Queens' College. His publications include Studies on the Text of Euripides (OUP, 1981), The Textual Tradition of Euripides' Orestes (Oxford University Press, 1991), and Euripidea: Collected Essays (Oxford University Press, 1994). He was University Orator at Cambridge for eleven years, and has published a selection of his speeches in Cambridge Orations 1982-1993 (Cambridge University Press 0521 466180).