Others: Positive The first professional playwright in history, Plautus was the creator of racy, raucous, very funny plays that will make modern audiences laugh as much as the first Romans did. Plautus was the single greatest influence on Western comedy. Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors and Moliere's The Miser are two subsequent classics directly based on Plautine originals. Plautus himself borrowed from the Greeks, but his jokes, rapid dialogue, bawdy humour, and irreverent characterizations are the original work of an undisputed genius. The comedies printed here show him at his best, and Professor Segal's translations keep their fast, rollicking pace intact, making these the most readable and actable versions available. His Introduction considers Plautus' place in ancient comedy, examines his continuing influence, and celebrates his power to entertain.
Genres: classics
Lists: …
Paul Cartledge
2002 · 285 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThe Spartans were a society of warrior-heroes who were the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, and extreme toughness. This book, written by one of the world’s leading experts on Sparta, traces the rise and fall of Spartan society and explores the tremendous influence the Spartans had on their world and even on ours. Paul Cartledge brings to life figures like legendary founding father Lycurgus and King Leonidas, who embodied the heroism so closely identified with this unique culture, and he shows how Spartan women enjoyed an unusually dominant and powerful role in this hyper-masculine society. Based firmly on original sources, The Spartans is the definitive book about one of the most fascinating cultures of ancient Greece.
What made the match, strongest first
Andrew Lang
1898 · 276 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveIn order to save her life, Sheherazade tells wonderful stories to the sultan.
What made the match, strongest first
P. G. Wodehouse
1925 · 256 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive'You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.' Stephen FryA Jeeves and Wooster collectionThese marvellous stories introduce us to Jeeves, whose first ever duty is to cure Bertie's raging hangover ('If you would drink this, sir... it is a little preparation of my own invention. It is the Worcester Sauce that gives it its colour. The raw egg makes it nutritious. The red pepper gives it its bite. Gentlemen have told me they have found it extremely invigorating after a late evening.')And from that moment, one of the funniest, sharpest and most touching partnerships in English literature never looks back...
What made the match, strongest first
Quintus Smyrnaeus
1999 · 316 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveHomer's Iliad begins towards the close of the last of the ten years of the Trojan War: its incidents extend over some fifty days only, and it ends with the burial of Hector. The things which came before and after were told by other bards, who between them narrated the whole cycle of the events of the war, and so were called the Cyclic Poets. Of their works none have survived; but the story of what befell between Hector's funeral and the taking of Troy is told in detail, and well told, in a poem about half as long as the Iliad.
What made the match, strongest first
Oscar Wilde
1893 · 106 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveSet in England during the late Victorian era, the play's humour derives in part from characters maintaining fictitious identities to escape unwelcome social obligations. It is replete with witty dialogue and satirises some of the foibles and hypocrisy of late Victorian society. It has proved Wilde's most enduringly popular play. - Wikipedia
What made the match, strongest first
Fyodor Dostoevsky
2022 · 853 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveFirst published in 1872, ‘Demons’ is a rich political novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and journalist. It is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century.\ The novel follows the travails of a small provincial town beset by a band of modish radicals—and in so doing presents a devastating depiction of life and politics in late 19th-century Imperial Russia. Both a hideous comedy and a shocking illustration of clashing ideologies, Dostoevsky’s famed novel stands as an undeniable masterpiece.\ Dostoyevsky’s life of ideas and spiritual realism concept is presented through his definition of evil as the passion for power. The demons are ideas, such as idealism, rationalism, empiricism, materialism, utilitarianism, positivism, socialism, anarchism, nihilism, and atheism.
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itIf you're looking for somewhere to start, the collection of his plays that I first read is entitled Four Comedies from Oxford University Press and it includes The Braggart Soldier, The Brothers Menaechmus, The Haunted House and The Pot of Gold.
