PositiveThe Guardian (UK)Stands out because her command of ancient Greek vocabulary, dialects, metres and even the manuscript tradition lends authority to every aesthetic decision she has made ... She has provided exceptionally rich resources for the reader, whether with previous knowledge of Homer or none: maps, a glossary, genealogies and 100 pages of explanatory notes. But her learning would count for little if the translation itself did not seduce with its crystalline clarity, elegance, sensuality, sometimes breathless pace and above all emotional clout ... Of course, there are places where I personally would have preferred a different choice ... Dynamic.
Jane Draycott
PositiveTimes Literary SupplementJane Draycott has wrestled dauntlessly with the little evidence there is about this intriguing figure ... Her reconstructions of the physical conditions in which the royal offspring lived, and of Cleopatra’s emotional responses to her dramatic early life, are plausible and vivid ... Draycott is writing for the general reader and needs to make her narrative exciting. She is sometimes seduced by the sensationalism of her sources... into presenting their claims without sufficient scepticism. Elsewhere she is forced, by the nature of her project, to rely on painting imaginative word-pictures or compiling detailed accounts of the convoluted genealogies and shifting political alliances of her era ... But, with the help of fascinating illustrations, Draycott does an excellent job in recreating the culture and febrile atmosphere of the early years of Augustus’ reign.
Charlotte Higgins, Illus. by Chris Ofili
RaveThe Guardian (UK)Charlotte Higgins has embraced a central metaphor—weaving—that leads us through the labyrinth of interconnected stories in a startlingly fresh way. It throws radiant new light on their meanings. Although her chief model is Ovid’s phantasmagoric mythological compendium in his Metamorphoses, her voice is quite different—more tender and pensive—and she uses her considerable scholarly skills to mine many other ancient sources, rescuing some little-known stories from obscurity ... The importance of visualisation to the enjoyment of this book, a beautiful artefact in itself, is subtly indicated by prompts to the mind’s eye in the form of Chris Ofili’s exquisite line drawings on the dustjacket and at the opening of each chapter, and by the colour scheme ... The book would make a perfect introduction to the entrancing world of Greek myth for any secondary school student. Its thoughtful introduction, ample notes pointing to the ancient sources, bibliography of accessible further reading, maps, genealogies and glossary make it a useful resource for far more advanced adult readers. And Higgins’s simple yet sonorous style contains treats even for those lucky enough, like her, to have read her ancient sources in the original languages.
Euripides, Anne Carson, Illustrated by Rosanna Bruno
RaveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)... dramatizes the suffering of the women of Troy after the city’s defeat by the Greeks. The play’s reputation has created a subterranean impact ... This tragedy’s monumental standing makes Carson’s decision to rewrite it as \'A Comic\' (the subtitle) provocative and risky.
Robert Harris
PositiveThe GuardianThere are profound weaknesses in Harris’s writing. He fails to exploit the possibilities inherent in using Tiro as a narrator ... Despite its manifold faults, I enjoyed Dictator enormously.
