Collected Ancient Greek Novels

Rating:
Summary: The Remnants of a Genre
Review: Prose fiction is the segment of Greek literature that has left the faintest impression on later ages, as is demonstrated by the fact that virtually all of its remnants fit within this thick but not unwieldy volume. The contents include nine complete tales, most of which we would call novellas, plus epitomes or fragments of ten more. None of them is famous today, though Lucian's "True Romance" is often cited as a precursor to science fiction and Heliodoros' "Ethiopian Story" was widely read through the 18th century.

The core of the book consists of five "novels" - all from the 2nd century A.D., give or take a hundred or so years - that share enough conventions to be labeled a "genre". Their plots, in broadest outline, are identical: Boy and girl meet, fall in love, are married or about to be married, then are snatched apart by misfortune, faced with escalating threats to life and chastity, and finally reunited with virtue intact (hers anyway - his may wind up a bit tattered).

Within this pattern, there is much variation. "An Ephesian Tale" is sheer melodrama, "Chaereas and Callirhoe" a loosely historical romance, "An Ethiopian Story" a skillful narrative that opens with a trompe l'oeil scene that would do credit to a contemporary novelist. Perhaps the most interesting to the modern reader is "Daphnis and Chloe", where the perils to the lovers are more psychological than physical and the story traces their love affair from the first stirrings of adolescent attraction through long-delayed consummation.

Also present are works in other genres: a bawdy comedy ("The Ass", wrongly attributed in the Middle Ages to Lucian), a Munchausen-like travelogue (the authentic Lucian's "True Romance") and the faux historical "Alexander Romance", which shaped the later image of Alexander the Great as much as or more than did genuine history.

The translations, all but one specially prepared for this volume, are readable and generally lively. Only one of translators (burdened with the rather hopeless "Leucippe and Clitophon", in which he labors to uncover deeply hidden virtues) feels compelled to preface his effort with a discourse on literary theory.

The narratives gathered here are little-traveled paths in the terrain of classical literature and the reader may stumble now and then among the brambles, but the sights along the way are not without interest and charm.

Rating:
Summary: these Greek romances strongly influenced the modern novel
Review: This 800 page book contains all the extant Greek novels, or romances, that have made it to us out of antiquity. These romances are mostly in the line of boy meets girl, suffer shipwreck, are eventually reunited and discover they're rich. Like modern romances! Other of the romances are more historical, like the one about Alexander the Great. But great this particular romance is not. It's rather boring. My favorite in the book is Chariton, Chaereas and Callirhoe. Not exactly world famous these days. But of surprising invention and delight. More famous names are Heliodorus, An Ethiopean Story. Or Longus, Daphne and Chloe. Or Lucan, A True Story. If you're interested in expanding your idea of the novel, this would be a great place to spend a few weeks.

Rating:
Summary: you will like it for a while probably
Review: This is a huge book of romantic stories of the ancient world in which the young hero and heroine are beautiful and in love. Either they are separated by being stolen by pirates, or thought to be dead (a la Romeo and Juliet) or some such...and after much ado they are reunited. In my college class we are observing the role of the supernatural/divine in the various works,as a reflection of the kaliedoscopic religion of those times and places of the authors.

Rating:
Summary: Little known novels that everyone should know
Review: This was the required text for a Classical Novel course I took, and at first I felt as if I was going to be disappointed by the novels it contained because to me it seemed as if they were all romances with little substance, kind of like the modern pulp fiction novels that you buy at your local drugstore.

However, after reading the first novel in the anthology, Chaereas and Callirhoe, I was hooked. These ancient novels are wonderful works of literature, written in a readable style that will grip anyone who reads them. I think also, that there is no better way to get in touch with Hellenistic history than to read a contemporary source.