New in Literature

"Anyone who's ever been fascinated by The Magnificent Seven or a Marvel Comics movie that brings together a team of great epic heroes for a noble cause will understand the archetype and the paradigm that animates Apollonius's version of the ancient myth of the Argo, in which an assemblage of highly charismatic pre-Trojan War heroes embarks on a daunting adventure. This new edition of the epic can play an invaluable role in any number of classes that involve ancient literature or that focus on heroic quests in literature of any period. Readers will be able to understand not only the story itself, but also the culture that produced it, and, further, the complicated and sometimes inconsistent values of heroism and nobility, which are both celebrated and challenged in Apollonius's great poem 
—Michael Calabrese, Professor of English, Cal State LA and translator of Piers Plowman: The A Version, revised edition (Catholic University of America Press)

This Expanded Second Edition of Jackson Crawford’s 2015 translation of the Poetic Edda offers a wider range of poems (now including the Eddic Old Norse poem “Svipdagsmal” and four related non-Eddic Old Norse poems, “Eiriksmal,” “Hakonarmal,” “Krakumal,” and “Lokrur”) as well as a revised translation and enhanced editorial apparatus. Set in a new page design, it also features samples from the Old Norse texts written in the Old Norse runic alphabet known as the Younger Futhark (in Jackson Crawford’s hand) along with original Old Norse-inspired Latin alphabet typographical ideograms (by E. L. Wilson).

"I am a huge fan of Whobrey’s translations. These new English translations of Kudrun, Wolf Dietrich, and Otnit uphold the quality to which I’ve grown accustomed in his work. They do an excellent job of capturing the language and cadence of the texts, and are as accurate, readable, and fluent as the original texts allow them to be.
     "I especially love the texts Wolf Dietrich and Otnit, and I’m thrilled they are now available for the first time in English translation. They are such fun to read, and I hope that students find their hapless heroes as entertaining and humorous as I do.
      "In short, it is a delight to read Whobrey’s English translations of these tales, and I’m excited to teach with them."
—Kathryn Starkey, Stanford University

"Arnson Svarlien's translation offers fresh insight into three of Aristophanes's greatest comedies. The verse flows smoothly, and throughout it is stressed that these plays belong on a stage, with guidance on how that might be accomplished. At the same time, the detailed Introduction and interpretative notes on every page show that both Arnson Svarlien and Storey are deeply committed to presenting a vibrant, modern Aristophanes, and to giving the tools needed for readers and actors to form their own opinions on matters of ongoing scholarly controversy."
—C.W. Marshall, FRSC, Professor of Greek, The University of British Columbia

"An excellent piece of work. Lombardo and McClure have struck the right balance between literal and lyrical, formal and informal. Each of the letters has a distinct voice–something clear in the Latin but difficult to convey.
    "There are many small pleasures for the reader looking at the Latin (duplicated line-starts and -ends, verbal effects, etc.). Most are unobtrusive, which is all to the good. This translation is not designed to be a crib, though it wouldn’t be bad as one. More importantly, the poems read well in English. There are lots of glancing references to the tropes of elegy, but they won’t slow down the first-time reader of the poems. The translators have even made something of several of the puns (e.g. verbum/vela dare), an impressive feat.
     "Welch's Introduction is perfectly pitched; it gives a lot of useful information in short compass, and it does so in a lively manner, with full attention to the scholarship but not so as the general reader would notice."
–Laurel Fulkerson, Professor Emerita of Classics, Florida State University

"The musicality of Deborah Roberts' translation of Aeschylus' Persians, the earliest Greek tragedy that has come down to us, rivals the playwright's own astonishing lyricism. She crafts extended speeches by the drama's characters into captivating set-pieces of performance poetry. Roberts also replicates Herodotus' celebrated storytelling energy in her translation of the passages from his Histories included in this volume. In her Introduction, Roberts examines Aeschylus' drama and Herodotus' representations of Persian culture as crucial records of ancient Greek conceptions of otherness and perceptively appraises the Persians itself as a sober contemplation upon the shared human toll of political ambition and warfare’s traumas and grief, making this book urgently relevant to contemporary audiences."
—James Bradley Wells, PhD, Edwin L. Minar Professor of Classical Studies, DePauw University

** Awarded the MLA’s Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione prize for a translation of a literary work (December 2024). **

The prize committee’s citation: "In the three Spanish comedias included in Black Protagonists of Early Modern Spain, which appear together and in English for the first time, the seemingly rigid social hierarchies that form the setting of so many comedias are put to the test when three talented Black men break through the racial barriers. Michael Kidd’s selection of plays will appeal to students of literature, history, cultural studies, and the African diaspora. The plays themselves are framed between a highly informative preface and introduction and an extensive annotated glossary of people and places. However, it is the accessibility, fluidity, and vibrancy of language that make this volume an excellent choice for all readers to experience and enjoy in English the same kind of wordplay that was integral to the Spanish comedia of the early modern period."

Remarkable products of a nation deeply implicated in the Atlantic slave trade, the seventeenth-century Spanish plays Juan Latino, The Brave Black Soldier, and Virtues Overcome Appearances appear together in English for the first time in this volume. The three protagonists not only defy the period’s color-based prejudices but smash through its ultimate social barrier: marriage into the white nobility. Michael Kidd’s fluid translations and extensive critical introduction, bibliography, and glossary are enhanced by Hackett’s title support webpage. Black Protagonists of Early Modern Spain is essential reading for students of theater history, Spanish literature, and the African diaspora.

Additional Online Resources: Illustrations and maps referenced in the book are available for free on the title support page.

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.

Peter Hainsworth’s sparkling, eminently readable new English translation of The Book of the Courtier, Baldesar Castiglione’s (1478–1529) literary and philosophical masterpiece, captures all the nuance, stylistic flair, and humor of this foundational work of Renaissance humanism.

Free PDF eBook, not available as a print book. Click the learn more link below to visit the title page and download a free PDF eBook.

An anonymous Greek reworking (doubtfully attributed to Lucian) of the lost, anonymous Greek Metamorphoseis (falsely attributed to Lucius of Patras). An American translation.

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.

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.