Sunday, April 06, 2008

Literature in translation?

I have long wanted a reader in classical literature in translation to build into the early years of my Latin language courses, but have come up empty. Several years ago in the course that put me on the path toward classics (a brilliant course called simply 'Humanities'), one of the two instructors lamented that there wasn't a better or more affordable set of anthologies than the little paperback Penguins by Michael Grant. If memory serves they were boring and scatter-shot to my young college brain, and even if they were not now out of print, I could not see purchasing them for high school students.

Surely I am not alone in wanting something like this to help contextualize the study of Latin, and to help communicate things like values that do not translate from the pages of introductory textbooks.

Has anyone a suggestion?

1 comment:

Eric said...

Hey Dennis,

There's this: http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Roman-Reader-Viking-Library/dp/0140150560/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

But I'm not sure if that has exactly what you'll be looking for in it, or the types of translations you want.

Also this: http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Roman-Reader-Encounters-Ancient/dp/0195127404/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

Good to see you back on the Campus!

Eric