550 reviews for:

The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone

Sophocles

3.87 AVERAGE

thereaderintherye's review against another edition

2.25

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

yosanoswaif's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

twaghorn's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

simplycelestial's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

izzyske's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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only read this translation as i got a free copy - never read old translations if you have the choice to pick a modern one. rated it this bc the story itself is great (surprised me how cool it was), but am not comfortable giving it higher since this is an old translation, so i have no modern critiques/translations to compare it against. this translation is extremely heavy on having very christian terminology which was very obvious (though this was actually very helpful as you could tell distinctly which bits to take with a bucket of salt), but the OG author does explain to an extent these choices in the introduction which is a pretty good thing for them to do. the chorus particularly sounds intensely biblical in their language which comes across as very comical in 2022 imo. great story though and once i've read a modern translation or two i'll update this.

littlered4758's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

starpalette's review against another edition

5.0

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4.5 rounded up ✨

Simply wonderful. Antigone blew my mind, Oedipus the King has always been a favorite of mine and Oedipus at Colonus was surprisingly good as well despite the fact that I had never heard of it before. All the plays took me right to ancient greece, as if I was part of the audience and was feeling everything they were feeling. Also beautiful language and heart-wrenching plots. I loved it

aniazawislanx's review against another edition

4.0

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ducdebunbury's review against another edition

4.25

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Anti-gunny now Anti-'gone'

borumi's review against another edition

4.0

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Another geat translation by Fagles. Knox's introduction was helpful but slightly overdrawn. A must-read tragedy.

I wonder if the eye gouging scene in both King Lear and the Blade Runner movie is derived from Oedipus?
The Delphic inscription of "See thyself" rings true, ever more eloquently after Oedipus loses his physical sight. So, the irony is played out on multiple levels

Sophocles의 The Three Theban Plays에서 Bernard Knox의 introduction은 딱 적당했다. 너무 상세하지도 너무 부족하지도 않은 정도.. 독자인 나로서는 Goldilocks의 마지막 그릇처럼 어느 한쪽으로도 치우치지 않은 just right한 중간 온도였다.

이 정도여야 독자로서도 즐기고 스스로 생각할 여지를 남기지 않는가 싶다. 연극반에서 애드립을 즐기는 연기자로서는 완벽주의자 연출가가 좀 짜증나는 것처럼 말이다.

Robert Fagles는 다소 정확성이 떨어진다고 해도 초보자가 읽기에 아주 좋은 번역가다. 특히 Sophocles 작품은 David Grene과 Robert Fagles 작품이 가장 잘 읽히는 것 같다고 다른 리뷰어도 말한다. 다음에는 Grene의 번역으로 읽어봐야겠다.



참고로 Robert Fagles의 Sophocles는 kindle version이 완전 꽝. 오타가 너무나도 많고 line 번호도 하나도 안 나왔다. 종이책으로 꼭 사서 보세요.