LITMIR.BIZ

Perhaps the most philosophical of the three Theban plays, «Oedipus at Colonus» continues the story begun in «Oedipus the King.» Oedipus is a blind beggar, tainted by his past, and nearing the end of his life. He travels with his daughter, Antigone, until they reach the holy ground of the Furies, which coincides with the prophecy of his place of death. There he is sought after by the warring kings of Athens and Thebes, for his final resting place will grant victory and peace to the country in which his body will reside. Written in the final year of Sophocles' life, this play addresses morality and guilt, fate, and the inexplicable and heroic transformation of a man who perseveres through a difficult life.

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Euripides, along was Sophocles and Aeschylus, is responsible for the rise of Greek tragedy. It was in the 5th Century BC, during the height of Greece's cultural bloom, that Euripides lived and worked. Of his roughly ninety-two plays, only seventeen tragedies survive. Both ridiculed and lauded during his life, Euripides now stands as an innovator of the Greek drama. Here, in «Iphigenia Among the Taurians» is an escape play with a familiar cast of characters. Iphigenia, Orestes, and Pylades all appear at the Black Sea in a fascinating drama about ritual and sacrifice among the cult of Artemis. «Iphigenia» is difficult to categorize as it deftly moves from romance to comedy to tragedy. Considered by many classicists to be Euripides most well executed play, «Iphigenia» displays the deeply philosophical leanings absent in many of his other plays.

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William Shakespeare's «Antony and Cleopatra» is the historical drama based on the lives of its title characters. Mark Antony is part of the ruling triumvirate of Rome and at the outset of the play he is living in Egypt engaged in an affair with the beautiful Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra. When the word that his wife has died and that Pompey is raising an army to challenge the authority of the triumvirate, Mark Antony returns to Rome to help manage the situation. «Antony and Cleopatra» is one of Shakespeare's great historical dramas.

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Euripides (480 BC-406 BC) is revered as one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, and produced the largest body of extant work by any ancient playwright. He is considered to be the most modern of the three, and he laid the foundation for Western theatre. His work sticks out from that of his contemporaries because of his colloquial vocabulary, meter and syntax, distinct from the grandiose language of his predecessors. This edition contains six of Euripides' eighteen surviving works, including «Orestes». In writing «Orestes» (408 b.c.e.), Euripides utilized the mythology of the Bronze Age to reflect upon the politics of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. The story takes places after Orestes has murdered his mother to avenge his father, Agamemnon, and follows him as he attempts to save his own life. The play explores themes of man's subordination to the gods and the conflict between natural law and manmade law. In addition to «Orestes» this edition also includes «The Heracleidae», «Andromache», «The Suppliants», « The Phoenician Maidens», and «Iphigenia at Aulis».

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Euripides turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first victory in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. He would be awarded this honor three more times in his life, and once more posthumously. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. In 408 b.c.e., Euripides left worn-torn Athens for Macedonia, upon the invitation of King Archelaus, and there he spent his last years as a confidant of the king. This edition contains four of the eighteen extant works by this renowned Greek dramatist. In his final years, he produced «The Bacchae» – one of the most produced ancient plays of the twentieth century. Produced by his son or nephew in 405 b.c.e., after his death, «The Bacchae» was part of a trilogy that won first place at the Athens City Dionysia. In addition to «The Bacchae» this edition includes «Ion», «The Trojan Women» and «Helen».

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"The Sonnets and Narrative Poems" collects together all the non-dramatic poetry of William Shakespeare. While Shakespeare is known best for his plays he also wrote numerous love sonnets and a handful of narrative poems which are excellent literary works in their own right. The narrative poems include two erotically themed works, «Venus and Adonis» and «The Rape of Lucrece» as well as the romantic narratives of «A Lover's Complaint» and «The Phoenix and the Turtle». Shakespeare also wrote a collection of 154 love sonnets. Believed to be written throughout his lifetime there is some dispute as to the intended order of «The Sonnets». It is thought that he planned two contrasting series for the poems. The first is of the desire for a married woman of dark complexion, the so-called «dark lady», and the other about the conflicted love of a fair young man, the «fair youth». This classic collection of non-dramatic poetry shows Shakespeare in a different light than his dramatic works and helps to exemplify the full breadth of his immense literary talents.

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Euripides turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first victory in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. He would be awarded this honor three more times in his life, and once more posthumously. Together with Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides would provide the canon of Greek tragedy and thereby lay the foundation of Western theatre. Eighteen of Euripides' ninety-two works remain today, making his the largest extant collection of work by an ancient playwright. «Iphigenia at Aulis» is part of a trilogy which is the last remaining work of Euripides. It was produced a year after his death by his son or nephew, and received first place at the Athenian City Dionysia. The story takes place before and during the Trojan War, when Agamemnon must decide whether or not to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, for the sake of Troy's honor. It explores timeless themes of honor, sacrifice, hypocrisy and courage.

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The ancient Roman writer Plautus is one of the most important playwrights in Western Civilization. «The Pot of Gold and Other Plays» captures his genius with a collection of famous plays performed in the Roman theatre. Plautus adapted most of his plays from earlier Greek stories, making him essential in helping preserve the history and integrity of Greek theatre. What makes Plautus extraordinary, though, is that he kept the essence of the Greek shows while evolving the wordplay and language to fit the more modern Roman tastes. He refused to let the renovations of the story be compromised by ultimate life-lessons or other philosophical teachings; instead, Plautus focused on the every-day life of the every-day man. The plays also contained some of the earliest slapstick humor, making them significant in the history of the theatre. The plays contain well-known archetypes as well, such as the clever slave and the lusty older man. The influence of his works was not lost during history, as both Shakespeare and Moliere cite Plautus as major influences on their writing style. The famous wordplay and comedic relationships that typify Shakespeare were directly inspired by Plautus' works. «The Pot of Gold and Other Plays» will not only entertain with humor and originality, but will expose the reader to an important part of Western history.

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First published within Shakespeare's «First Folio» of 1623, «All's Well That Ends Well», rides a fascinating dramatic line between the comedy and the tragedy. The play tells the story of Helena, a penniless worker at the Palace of Rousillion, and her cunning adventures to wed Bertram, the prosperous son of Rousillion. When Helena rids the King of France of a peculiar illness, she is rewarded the hand of Bertram. Faced with hesitancy from Bertram, she devises a most devious plan to birth his son and keep his ring. Based on Baccacio's, «The Decameron», the play energizes a classic theme of love conflicted by class. Full of the expected wit and ardor of Shakespeare, «All's Well That Ends Well» defies typical genre classification, remaining an anomaly among the Shakespearean canon.

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Euripides turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first victory in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. He would be awarded this honor three more times in his life, and once more posthumously. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. In 408 b.c.e., Euripides left worn-torn Athens for Macedonia, upon the invitation of King Archelaus, and there he spent his last years as a confidant of the king. In his final years, he produced «The Bacchae» – one of the most produced ancient plays of the twentieth century. The play, based on the mythological story of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agauë, and their punishment by the god Dionysus for refusing to worship him, was awarded first prize at the Athens City Dionysia after Euripides' death. Its popularity through the centuries is a testament to Euripides' great talent as a Greek dramatist.

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