Literature

"Entirely faithful to Boethius' Latin; Relihan's translation makes the philosophy of the Consolation intelligible to readers; it gives equal weight to the poetry—in fact, Relihan's metrical translation of Boethius' metra are themselves contributions of the first moment to Boethian studies. Boethius finally has a translator equal to his prodigious talents and his manifold vision."
     —Joseph Pucci, Brown University

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"Professor Jeffrey Kahan's expertise in the history of Shakespearean acting complements Kittredge's lucid [introduction and text] to create an edition of Coriolanus that centers modern readers in the play’s performance. Kahan's introduction to the edition both recounts historical performances and carefully details recent directorial choices—choices that reappear in the course of his footnotes providing acting choices for key scenes. These notes, together with photographs of compelling performances, fix the reader's imagination firmly in the midst of Shakespeare’s chilling theatrical portrayal of Republican Rome. This highly accessible edition will prove invaluable for actors, students, and lovers of Shakespeare."
     —Cyndia Clegg, Pepperdine University

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“Pluhar maintains a fine, even tone throughout. . . . Those who have found the prospect of teaching the third Critique daunting will admire its clarity. . . . No one will be disappointed.”
      —Timothy Sean Quinn, The Review of Metaphysics

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"The New Kittredge series is both a delight and a steal. Kittredge's textual authority, updated by eminent scholars sensitive to classroom needs and alert to staging choices, is once again available in these slim, elegant, inexpensive, user-friendly volumes. With lucid notes and incisive introductions geared especially to popular film versions, the series also offers an overview of both stage and film performances of each play. A must for any Shakespeare class."
     —Laury Magnus, Contributing Editor, New Kittredge Shakespeare and Hamletworks.org

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"A handy paperback edition offered primarily to teachers and students who can make no pretense of reading the entirety of the large work, but who want to sample some of its chief delights. . . . [Grant gives us an] exemplary translation . . . marked above all by great accuracy and fidelity to Tocqueville’s text. . . . Kessler’s editor’s Introduction is a model introduction to a classic text for today’s students. It is clearly written, compact (without being too short or dense), and nicely structured. . . . A tour—and translation—well worth the price of admission." —Paul Seaton, Perspectives on Political Science

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"I find this an ideal introductory textbook for students of German literature. The material included provides an excellent overview of German literature since 1750 by embedding it in a cultural-historical context and clearly explaining the literary, cultural, and historical concepts involved. The copious exercises provide opportunities for students to organize their knowledge, engage in textual analysis, and expand their understanding of the interrelationships of literature and culture."
    —Margaret K. Devinney, Director, German Program at Temple University

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Donald Cress’s highly regarded translation, based on the critical Pléiade edition of 1964, is here issued with a lively introduction by James Miller, who brings into sharp focus the cultural and intellectual milieu in which Rousseau operated. This new edition includes a select bibliography, a note on the text, a translator’s note, and Rousseau’s own Notes on the Discourse.

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"An excellent translation: clear, crisp and accurate. The introduction is also a helpful contextualization of the text, Boétie's relation to Montaigne, and a brief discussion of the history of this important text on non-cooperation in the 20th-Century. I highly recommend it for courses in the history of political theory and of non-cooperation as a means of regime change."
     —James Tully, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria

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An annotated version of Doctor Faustus, with modernized spelling and punctuation, of the 1616 B-text. James H. Lake's Introduction discusses the play’s historical and dramatic contexts, but focuses on its performance history from the Elizabethan era to our own, including film productions. Textual notes discuss variations between the A and B texts. Interviews with Ralph Alan Cohen of Shenandoah Shakespeare and Andreas Teuber (Mephistopheles in the Richard Burton production) as well as illustrations from theatre and film performances included.

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This new edition of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus offers the complete 1604 A-text with embedded selections from the 1616 B-text. Its innovative format will make it easier for readers to note differences between these texts and to consider what is gained and lost in viewing them both separately and together. A full Introduction to the play, notes, and a rich selection of related texts further enhance the value of this edition to students of Renaissance drama, Reformation theology, magic, and occult philosophy.

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"This is an excellent edition; I really appreciate the clear Introduction and the exceptionally useful notes.  I look forward to using this text with a freshman literature class who will really benefit from the helpful textual apparatus." —Charlotte England, Department of English, Salisbury University

"The inexpensive paperback will allow this student-friendly text to be added to the reading list of a variety of high-school and college courses. Teachers as well as students will find the Introduction here very useful." —Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

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"James Montgomery's new translation of Don Quixote is the fourth already in the twenty-first century, and it stands with the best of them. It pays particular attention to what may be the hardest aspect of Cervantes's novel to render into English: the humorous passages, particularly those that feature a comic and original use of language. Cervantes would be proud." —Howard Mancing, Professor of Spanish, Purdue University and Vice President, Cervantes Society of America

"Fluent, unobtrusively modern, and attractively priced. Excellent notes add to the attractiveness of this very competent translation." —Alison Weber, University of Virginia, in Sixteenth Century Journal

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Twenty discourses from the Pali Canon—including those most essential to the study and teaching of early Buddhism—are provided in fresh translations, accompanied by introductions that highlight the main themes and set the ideas presented in the context of wider philosophical and religious issues. Taken together, these fascinating works give an account of Buddhist teachings directly from the earliest primary sources.

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Early Modern: New Horizons offers, in its entirety, the fourth section (chapters 12-14) of Margaret King's The  Western Literary Tradition: An Introduction in Texts, Volume 1. Available in eBook format only, it includes the general introduction and annotation to this section along with textual selections arranged chronologically from Amerigo Vespucci's New World (1502/1503) to Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671). Contents covers selections from works by Baldassar Vespucci, Hernán Cortés, Garcilaso de la Vega, Saint Francis Xavier, Luís de Camões, Margaret Cavendish, Aphra Behn, Marguerite de Navarre, Saint Teresa of Ávila, María de Zayas y Sotomayor, Moderata Fonte, Sarra Copia Sulam, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Molière, John Milton and selections from The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes.

Table of Contents: Click here to view the Table of Contents for Early Modern: New Horizons (PDF).

For more information about the The  Western Literary Tradition anthology, including the Table of Contents for the complete volume 1 and all four eBook-only selects from volume  1, visit: hackettpublishing.com/literature/anthology.

Ebook examination copies: To request a RedShelf or VitalSource eBook exam copy of this or other titles in The Western Literary Tradition anthology please complete this form.

Student Purchase (eBook ISBN 9781624669644): Available now from RedShelf, VitalSource, eBooks.com, and participating Follett and Barnes and Noble college bookstores that sell eBooks to students. 

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"This is now the edition of choice for those of us who teach Brown's fascinating Edgar Huntly.  Barnard and Shapiro explore the relevant historical, cultural, and literary backgrounds in their illuminating Introduction; they skillfully annotate the text; they provide useful and up-to-date bibliographies; and they append a number of revealing primary texts for further cultural contextualization.  This edition will help to stimulate new thinking about race, empire, and sexuality in Brown's prescient novel of the American frontier." —Robert S. Levine, University of Maryland

"The striking painting by a French artist on the cover of this American novel signals the editors' refreshing approach to Edgar Huntly through trans-Atlantic discourses of empire, radical-democratic social theory, sensibility, and sexuality. . . .This edition provides students with the tools to contextualize and analyze Edgar Huntly, including an extensive bibliography of relevant scholarship and footnotes that define unfamiliar words, give historical background, or refer the reader back to the introduction.  Barnard and Shapiro's selection of related texts from works including William Godwin's Political Justice and Brown's essays gives students insight on Edgar Huntly's sources." —Yvette Piggush, Journal of the Early Republic

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"This exciting new edition of Edward II is indeed reader friendly. Of particular distinction are the introductory sections which include a thorough account of Marlowe's biography, a fresh critical examination of the play, plus a bibliography for further reading; a wise consideration of the date and text; and extensive annotations, especially helpful to students who have difficulties with the language. Of special value to both students and scholars are the Related Texts that follow the text of the play: three sections of documentary evidence on historical sources; power and politics; and love, friendship, and homoeroticism—all vital to an understanding of the play. No previous edition of the play manages to encompass so much."
     —Robert A. Logan, University of Hartford

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El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra was first published in Spain around 1630 by Gabriel Tellez, a Spanish Baroque dramatist, poet and a Roman Catholic monk who used the name Tirso de Molina. The earliest adaptation of the legend of Don Juan, the personification of youthful indifference and all that is sinful, Tirso’s tale set in the 14th century confronts evil masquerading as honor. The Focus Student Editions are appropriate as introductory texts for Spanish language courses in literature and culture. They have been designed to help students approach the original Spanish text through an introductory essay, vocabulary and cultural notes, and study questions. All material is in Spanish, and complete in one volume.

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This is an English translation of Sophocles' tragedy of Electra, and the vengeance that she and her brother Orestes take on their mother and step father for the murder of their father. This edition also includes an "afterlife" essay that discusses adaptations of the play, as well as touches on other ways Electra has had influence (Jung's identification of the Electra Complex, O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra). Focus Classical Library provides close translations with notes and essays to provide access to understanding Greek culture.

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The four late plays of Euripides collected here, in beautifully crafted translations by Cecelia Eaton Luschnig and Paul Woodruff, offer a faithful and dynamic representation of the playwright’s mature vision.

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This text brings together for the first time two complete key works from classical antiquity on the politics of Athens: Plato's Menexenus and Pericles' Funeral Oration (from Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War).

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"Michael Harney's translation of Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares is the most authoritative and accurate rendering of Cervantes's classic tales to date and promises to be the translation against which future translations will be measured. Harney skillfully portrays the nuanced and complex world of the Exemplary Novellas in a translation that is faithful to the letter and spirit of the original. An erudite and informative Introduction presents a general overview of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain, the life of Cervantes, and a detailed analysis of the Exemplary Novellas. Before each story, Harney provides a brief synopsis, an analysis of the novella’s themes, motifs, and generic affinities, and a bibliography for further reading. In addition, numerous footnotes complement the background information Harney provides in the Introduction and prior to each novella."
     —Michael J. McGrath, Georgia Southern University

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"Kirby reproduces in simple, clear English—and almost always line for line—the meaning of Goethe's German text, with metrical variations that evoke the shifting meters of the original."
      —Jane Brown, University of Washington

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Of the many ballads, tales, and plays extolling filial piety (xiao)—the foundational virtue of imperial China—none was more popular in that era than the legend of Dong Yong and his heavenly helpmate, Weaving Maiden. Continually revised and embellished over a millennium, the tale's popularity remains, finding new expression in Chinese film and opera in the twentieth century. The five versions of the legend presented here, alongside a selection of related texts, illustrate changing perceptions of xiao from the tenth century through the first part of the twentieth in a variety of genres. An appendix traces the development of the related legend of Weaving Maiden and Buffalo Boy from myth to folktale.

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The second edition of Five Dialogues presents G. M. A. Grube’s distinguished translations, as revised by John Cooper for Plato, Complete Works. A number of new or expanded footnotes are also included along with an updated bibliography.

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Five Russian stories (in English) from the post-Soviet era from among the best modern writers. The stories reflect cultural and political styles and concerns in Russian literature today. Translated with notes and introduction in English.

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This volume offers lively and accurate translations of Chekhov's major plays and one-acts (complete contents listed below) along with a superb Introduction focused on the plays' remarkably enduring power to elicit the most widely divergent of responses, the life of the playwright in its historical and aesthetic contexts, suggestions for reading the plays "under a microscope," and notes designed to bring Chekhov's world into immediate focus—everything needed to examine his drama with fresh eyes and on its own artistic terms. Three Jokes: The Bear, The Proposal, The Anniversary. The Major Plays: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard.

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"In this new edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, David Wootton's Introduction gives the reader both a clear and gripping account of the biographical circumstances that led to the novel’s writing and the most striking and original interpretations of its central themes and of the intellectual and cultural influences on them. Offering a new account of the complex history of its composition, and drawing upon his deep knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scientific debates, Wootton reveals the ways in which the origins of Shelley’s novel are inextricably linked to conceptions of the origins of life itself. We have here a transformative reading of one of the world’s best-known stories." —Laura Marcus, Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature and Fellow of New College, University of Oxford

"David Wootton, the editor of a splendid new edition of Frankenstein that includes a rich variety of relevant texts, prefers to focus on the contribution made to the novel by Mary’s reading of contemporary articles on travel (the book’s first narrator, Robert Walton, is bound for the North Pole, which he describes as 'the favourite dream of my early years'). Wootton's magisterial introduction grants equal significance to the earnest discussions about generating life that took place in 1816 at Lord Byron's lakeside villa in Switzerland, where Frankenstein was conceived."
 —Miranda Seymour in The New York Review of Books

Click here to see the full Table of Contents with the list of related texts included.

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"Overall . . . I find this translation of the Frogs to be entertaining and very readable. Furthermore, Henderson's comprehensive introduction makes this translation quite useful for general readers or students at any level." —Erin K. Moodie, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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"Chew's translation is, both in aesthetic and scholarly terms, an excellent piece of work. I find her approach refreshing and true to the spirit of the Georgics; her adventurousness strikes me as just the thing to rescue the poem from the appearance of blandness that a more straightforward style of translationese would inevitably, but misleadingly, impose upon it. This Georgics does not read much like any previous version of it. Chew helps the English reader to get a sense of Virgil's avant-garde poetics, which is the main thing that almost all translators of the Georgics work to eliminate, if indeed they are even aware of it.
First-rate."
     —Joseph Farrell, Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania

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“Raymond Mackenzie’s elegant new translation of Émile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel’s colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator.  David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature."  —Stephen Kern, Ohio State University

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This stirring new version of the great Babylonian epic includes material from the recently discovered “monkey tablet” as well as an Introduction, timeline, glossary, and correspondences between lines of the translation and those of the original texts.

"A comprehensive Introduction with a light touch (Beckman), a poetic rendering with verve and moxie (Lombardo): This edition of the colossal Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic should satisfy all readers who seek to plumb its wealth and depth without stumbling over its many inconvenient gaps and cruxes. A fine gift to all lovers of great literature." —Jack M. Sasson, Emeritus Professor, Vanderbilt University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Golden Prose in the Age of Augustus is an anthology containing fresh, accurate and readable translations of the seven great prose writers from the Augustan period and covers a broad range of prose writing with introduction, maps, chronology, glossary, bibliography and notes. 

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An anthology containing fresh and rhythmic translations of the great poets from the Augustan period, Golden Verses covers a broad range of verse with introduction, maps, chronology, glossary, bibliography and notes. Alessi's text is designed specifically for the college market, providing students with access to the thought and context at the roots of our culture. Designed to be read in conjunction with major works of the Augustan Age—Ovid's Metamorphosis and Vergil's Aeneid.

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“This is an excellent translation. It achieves a very high standard of accuracy and readability, two goals very difficult to attain in combination when it comes to such a master of prose and philosophical argument as Plato. Because of this the book is suitable for courses at all levels in philosophy, from introductory courses on Plato, or problems in Philosophy, to graduate seminars.” —Gerasimos Santas, Teaching Philosophy

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“Miller is one of the ablest experts in the language of Greek poetry, and he has a razor-sharp sense for the nuances of the wording. A lastingly important sourcebook; I strongly recommend it.”
     —Gregory Nagy, Harvard University

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“This comprehensive scholarly work will not be superseded for another century. It is both a monumental and a readable book.”
     —Classical Philology

A reprint of the Oxford University Press edition of 1966. Co-published in the U.K. by Gerald Duckworth and Company, Ltd.

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"The Haft Paykar—Nizami's twelfth-century masterpiece, written in the Persian verse couplet form known as masnavi—has waited a long time for a translation like this: one that simultaneously captures its lightness and charm and plumbs its wealth of cultural detail. Julie Meisami's deft, accurate, seemingly effortless version (rendered in English tetrameter, an inspired choice) is a rare accomplishment."
     —Michael Beard, University of North Dakota

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"Shakespeare scholars Bernice W. Kliman and James H. Lake have carried out the important task of not only bringing up to date the text of Hamlet as edited in the last century by the celebrated Shakespearean George Lyman Kittredge but also retaining its significant features. The editors' discerning analyses of performances by Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branah, Michael Almereyda, and Simon Russell Beale drive home the point that Hamlet today remains alive but restless and unpredictable. It exemplifies Ben Johnson's Shakespeare, who '. . . was not of an age, but for all time!'"
     —Kenneth Sprague Rothwell, (1921-2010), was Professor Emeritus, University of Vermont

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Euripides Hecuba is one of the few tragedies that evoke a sense of utter desolation and destruction in the audience. The drama focuses on the status of women, those who are out of power and at the margins of society, by enacting the sufferings of Hecuba. With the city of Troy fallen, Hecuba and Polyxena, her daughter, are enslaved to Agamemnon. Hecuba is despondent with the news that Polyxena is chosen to be sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles. After the sacrifice, the body of her son Polydorus, already a ghost at the start of the drama, is discovered. Polymestor, a king in Thrace who Hecuba sent Polydorus to for safety reasons, murdered Polydorus for his gold. With the tacit complicity of Agamemnon, Hecuba plots her revenge against Polymestor. What transpires next has lasting implications for all involved, including a dramatic trial scene and Hecubas ultimate metamorphosis.

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Euripides' Heracles is an extraordinary play, innovative in its treatment of the myth, bold in its dramatic structure, and filled with affective human pathos. The play tells a tale of horror: Heracles, the greatest hero of the Greeks, is maddened by the gods to murder his wife and children. But this suffering and divine malevolence are leavened by the friendship between Heracles and Theseus, which allows the hero to survive this final and most painful labor. The Heracles raises profound questions about the gods and mortal values in a capricious and harsh world. 

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No play of Euripides is more admired than Hippolytus. The tale of a married woman stirred to passion for a younger man was traditional, but Euripides modified this story and blended it with one of divine vengeance to create a masterpiece of tension, pathos, and dramatic power. In this play, Phaedra fights nobly but unsuccessfully against her desire for her stepson Hippolytus, while the young man risks his life to keep her passion secret. Both of them, constrained by the overwhelming force of divine power and human ignorance, choose to die in order to maintain their virtue and their good names.

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"Sarah Ruden's translation is clear, lean, intelligent, and delightfully readable. The notes provide guidance without encumbering the text. This will be marvelous for classroom use, for reading aloud, or simply for reading for pleasure."
     —Pamela Gordon, Department of Classics, University of Kansas

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This is a collection of the standard texts of ancient Greek which are important components of what we know about Greek myth, religion, language and culture. All of the works collectively known as the Homeric Hymns are collected and translated here in their entirety, and the work includes ample notes and an introduction to provide information on the works' historic importance, a chronological table, genealogical chart, maps of Greece and the Aegean Islands, and illustrations of vase paintings with mythological themes.

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"Gripping. . . . Lombardo's achievement is all the more striking when you consider the difficulties of his task. . . . [He] manages to be respectful of Homer's dire spirit while providing on nearly every page some wonderfully fresh refashioning of his Greek. The result is a vivid and disarmingly hardbitten reworking of a great classic." —Daniel Mendelsohn, The New York Times Book Review

"It is hard to overstate the attractions of this translation. In a rhythm sinewy and flexible, with language that is precise, lyrical and fresh, Lombardo's Iliad pulses with all the power and luminosity of the Greek. He shows extraordinary sensitivity to the images and aural effects of the ancient poem. There are brilliant touches on every page. . . . Altogether this is as good as Homer gets in English." —Richard P. Martin, Princeton University

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"This new Inferno is very quickly going to become a favorite. The translation itself is unusually dynamic and returns to the poem a register of daily speech that increases clarity and energy. It never loses sight of the fact that the Inferno tells an intensely involving story. This volume also offers real help to the novice reader. The synopsis printed at the beginning of each canto; the detailed commentary on each canto, at the end of the book; and, most importantly, a really excellent Introduction—all these give the reader constant and multileveled guides to the journey."
     —F. Regina Psaki, The Giustina Family Professor of Italian Language and Literature, University of Oregon

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"Tom Simone's translation is simply superb. Of all the translations with which I am familiar, this is the one that is the most faithful to what's there in the Italian: no frills, no poetic sallies, no choosing a word because it brings the line closer to iambic pentameter—just unadulterated Dante with good old Anglo-Saxon words and in highly readable prose."
    —Peter Kalkavage, St. John's University

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Includes an introduction, selected bibliography, works by Comte in English translation, and works about Comte in English - I. The Nature and Importance of the Positive Philosophy, II. The Classification of the Positive Sciences.

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"Diane Arnson Svarlien's lively and accessible translations give an excellent sense of Euripides' poetic resources, from his artful blend of conversational idiom and high style, to his powerful displays of rhetoric and emotion, to the expressive rhythms and images of his songs. They are sure to delight readers and listeners alike. Moreover, they have been shaped by judicious use of the best and latest scholarship. The plays in this volume will surprise readers used to tragedy on the Aristotelian pattern and stimulate reflection about what tragedy is and what it is for."
     —John Gibert, Department of Classics, University of Colorado, Boulder

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Second (Nov. 2022) & final third (June 2023) printings -- NOW SHIPPING and available to order on the Hackett website for customers in the U.S. & Canada, while supplies last. The reprint copies are unnumbered, but otherwise identical to the first printing, including the bookplate in The Poetic Edda personally signed by Dr. Crawford.

First printing (August 2022, 400 numbered copies worldwide -- SOLD OUT)

Customers in the U.K. & Europe -- a limited number of reprint copies are available for sale from Gazelle Book Services. 

Since the 2015 publication of The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes, Old Norse specialist Dr. Jackson Crawford has delighted readers with his English-language translations of Old Norse sagas and poems that tell the tales of Odin, Thor, Loki, dragon-slayer Sigurd, Brynhild the Valkyrie, Hrólf Kraki, and many more. This limited-edition set collects three of Dr. Crawford's Hackett Publishing books, The Poetic Edda (2015), The Saga of the Volsungs (2017), and Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes (2021) in a beautifully designed hand-crafted slipcase box. Each book in the set features smyth-sewn hardcover bindings with new custom artwork for the front covers. The Poetic Edda features a medallion of the wolf Fenrir, The Saga of the Volsungs a medallion of the dragon/serpent Fafnir, and Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes a medallion of a bear.

Each volume in the set begins with a phrase hand-written by Dr. Crawford that best exemplifies the text to follow or Dr. Crawford's favorite passage from the book. The quotes in The Poetic Edda and Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes also contain the runic "originals." The Poetic Edda also includes a bookplate personally signed by Dr. Crawford and hand-tipped into the front of the book.

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"The New Kittredge Series is both a delight and a steal. Kittredge's textual authority, updated by eminent scholars sensitive to classroom needs and alert to staging choices, is once again available in these slim, elegant, inexpensive, user-friendly volumes. With lucid notes and incisive introductions geared especially to popular film versions, the series also offers an overview of both stage and film performances of each play. A must for any Shakespeare class."
     —Laury Magnus

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