Reviews

All That You've Seen Here Is God: New Versions of Four Greek Tragedies Sophocles' Ajax, Philoctetes, Women of Trachis; Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound by Bryan Doerries, Aeschylus, Sophocles

mai_books27's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of the best anthologies of plays I've come across. Translations are approachable and compelling, and the introductory essays are phenomenal and deeply insightful. A must read for phenoms of the classics.

poetpenelopee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

marcg789's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

typicalerinn's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars - these translations would be great for teaching, and I loved the intros to each of the 4 plays and how they show the subject matter is still so relevant thousands of years later. However, I think I miss some of the more poetic language that I’d find in older translations. I appreciate the clarity, but they read a little like ‘No Fear Shakespeare.’ I think if I was considering staging any of these plays, I’d go for a different translation, but still a decent read.

dlbvenice's review

5.0

In these four Greek tragedies, Sophocles and Aeschylus explored various dimensions of human pain. Bryan Doerries's translations seek to explicitly link these 2500-year-old dramas to contemporary suffering, that felt by soldiers in wartime (Ajax, Philoctetes), by prisoners facing a life sentence (Prometheus Bound), and by terminal patients enduring extreme pain (Women of Trachis). His translations are approachable because of his use of contemporary vernacular, and still extremely moving.

The translation of Ajax was particularly moving. In his introduction, Doerries likens Ajax to a soldier suffering an extreme case of PTSD, drawing analogies between the decade-long Trojan War and our apparently endless war in Afghanistan. It is a melancholy thought indeed that despite all the changes wrought by more than a score of centuries, we still fail to recognize the full cost of our inability to resolve contention without the devastating and long-lasting effects created by armed conflicts. I find it particularly poignant to be reading this just days after our man-child President has turned our slow-burning conflict with Iran into a conflagration that could easily plunge the Mideast into war once again.