The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose. Volume I - Greece

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8

Word count: 435K words
Chapters: 44

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - GreeceAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Mar 26, 2007

Editor's review

This is the first of ten volumes of The Best of the World's Classics, devoted to Greece and gathering English selections from ancient Greek prose within the public-domain classic anthology tradition. Its value lies in its introductory and representative character: limiting itself to prose, the editor brings together a number of important texts of Greek thought and narrative, so that within a single volume the reader can gain a preliminary outline of the ancient Greek prose tradition without confronting vast complete sets. As an anthology it inevitably reflects the editor's choices, and the pieces are juxtaposed as excerpts; it is suited as a starting point for guided and further reading, not as a substitute for complete translations. In terms of reading situations, it suits classroom supplementation, introductions to the classics, and personal browsing: it can be read straight through for an overall impression, or dipped into piece by piece, turning to complete works when an author interests the reader. The English selections preserve the stylistic flavor of classic translations and are also of reference value to readers wishing to encounter the tradition of English classic compilation from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers seeking an introduction to ancient Greek prose and thought
Students and teachers needing English excerpt material to supplement Western classics courses
Readers interested in the tradition of modern English classic anthology compilation
Commuters who prefer short excerpts and flexible reading by piece

Not a good fit for

Specialist classics researchers needing complete translations or strict scholarly critical editions
Readers expecting modern Chinese translation and unaccustomed to the style of English translations
Readers seeking systematic literary history rather than an excerpt compilation

Reading tips

First browse the contents, mark authors of interest, read by piece, and note works to pursue further
After each piece, summarize its argument or narrative points in a few sentences to help form an overall thread
For important pieces, compare with other complete translations to see how the excerpt differs from the full work

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Does this volume contain only Greek works?

According to the title and volume information, this is the Greece volume of a ten-volume anthology, focused on ancient Greek prose presented in English excerpts. It does not cover the volumes on other civilizations, nor does it organize by complete works; it is a compilation of excerpts chosen by the editor, suitable as an introductory anthology of Greek prose.

Are the selections complete works or extracts?

As a Best of the Classics anthology, the book consists mainly of excerpts and extracts of manageable length, intended to let readers encounter more authors and texts within limited space rather than to provide complete works. If a piece interests you, it is advisable to find a complete translation of that work; the anthology is better used as an index and introduction.

Is the English translation difficult to read?

The English here comes from the modern tradition of classic compilation; the style is rather literary with longer sentences and somewhat distant from contemporary English, but it remains readable prose overall. It is advisable to begin with shorter, more narrative pieces to establish a rhythm, pass over unfamiliar proper names at first, and grasp the main point of each paragraph rather than pondering every word.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.