Colin Macleod died in December 1981 at the age of 38. Many regarded him as already one of the most profound interpreters in our times of Greek and Latin literature and ideas; and it was widely felt that his essays should be collected together in a single volume. There are twenty longer essays, including two previously unpublished, on Homer's poetics and on Thucydides' tragic vision, and some dozen shorter pieces. The three most prominent authors are Thucydides, Horace, and Gregory of Nyssa; but Macleod's extraordinary range included Aeschylus, Catullus, Propertius, and Origen, among many others. He left marginal notes towards any second edition, and these have been collected as an appendix. There is also a list of his many book reviews. This volume has a powerful coherence which comes from Macleod's fusion of scrupulous scholarship with a passionately intense search for wisdom in the creations of the past. He sees great writers, of prose and verse, as using myth, history, theology, and rhetoric as access to some understanding of the human condition. Careful readers will find that these essays have within them deeply-felt insights into society, love, suffering, and death.
Reviews
Rich and rewarding...Informed throughout by a striking unity of method and outlook...A remarkably delicate ear for recurring themes and ideas, far beyond mere verbal echoes, distinguishes the entire book, as does a passionate concern with ethics....Here is the finest exegete of classical literature of his generation....This splendid collection will serve...as an inspiration far beyond the circle of those who knew and loved its author. * Times Literary Supplement *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198150848
Author Colin Macleod
Format Paperback
Page Count 370
Imprint Clarendon Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 21mm