After a couple of abortive attempts to read through the Loeb Classics fairly systematically by starting at the beginning, I'm now starting somewhere in the middle. I started with Seneca because I actually own a copy of it. The first few numbers of the Loeb Classics are tough--I got stuck on Appian's *Roman History* a couple of times. Will I make through all of them? No, since it's bedtime reading and I usually make it through only a few pages before falling asleep.
Seneca's *Oedipus* is underrated. Certainly it lacks the power and artistry of Sophocles, but it has, as they say, its own charms. The descriptions of the effects of the plague are very powerful, more powerful than in Sophocles, in my recollection. You have to get into the spirit of it--it's far less accessible than Sophocles--but once you do, it's quite enjoyable.
Great project, Kenneth! If you ever need to borrow some Loebs, I've got a few philosophy and a few bits of history.
ReplyDeleteGreat! I have some too (e.g. Aristotle's *Metaphysics*), but they're currently retranslating many (all?) of them, and some of mine are the older versions. Which isn't a problem for philosophy so much, but apparently a lot of the literature had expurgated passages. I've spent the last six years reading Proust to fall asleep to, but after four reads of *In Search of Lost Time*, I needed a break.
ReplyDeleteOh, I didn't realize that they're doing new translations. Mine are obviously all old (some of them, inherited).
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't know if the motives are as purely scholarly as they might be--obviously it revives the franchise--but it's true that some of the translations are a hundred years old. I think that the Seneca is from 1995. Like I said, it probably makes no difference with the philosophy or the history. My understanding is that the poetry volumes in particular needed new translations.
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