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Title: Oedipus the King (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Stephen Berg, Diskin Clay, E. A. Sophocles ISBN: 0-19-505493-8 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (18 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: <*.Kill Father, Marry Mother.*>
Comment: Claimed to be the best of all Greek tragedies, OEDIPUS REX (or OEDIPUS THE KING..."REX" means "KING") by Sophocles is that classic story of the man who was doomed to kill his own father and marry his own mother. Everyone seems to know the basic plot of the story, but how much do you REALLY know?
This new translation of OEDIPUS THE KING by Berg and Clay proves to be successful...everything is understandable and rather enjoyable to read too. It's hard to believe that you're actually reading a play.
I suggest that you DO NOT read the original version of the play by Sophocles first...you might be discouraged by the difficulty of the language he uses. Instead, start with Berg and Clay's translation...it's so much easier to read, and more importantly, enjoy.
I felt that the action and plot was well-woven out, and the story tied together nicely; however, there was one flaw. The ending was too abrupt. Of course, I'm not going to spoil the ending for you now (you'll have to read it yourself) but I WILL tell you that if you're one of those people who hate endings that just leave you hanging, you might not like OEDIPUS THE KING.
I had to read OEDIPUS THE KING as an Honors English assignment (and usually what kind of books we have to read for school are good?). Nevertheless, I found the play interesting, but because of the so-abrupt ending with questions still dangling on the end, I give the book 3 stars. (By the way, in no other Greek tragedy are so many questions asked, so be prepared to have your mind boggled by this book!...Have a spiffy day! -Nick Chu
Rating: 2
Summary: Oedipus review
Comment: Oedipus was a weird book to reab, because the plot was all twisted. The characters in the book are nasty. Oedipus kills his father and has two kids with his mother.....
Rating: 5
Summary: The most read and misread of all the Greek tragedies
Comment: "Oedipus The King" ("Oedipus Rex") is not only the most read of all the Greek tragedies, it is also the most misread of the Greek dramas. The play's reputation exists in part because it was presented as the paragon of the dramatic form by Aristotle in his "Poetics," and it may well be because of that fact that "Oedipus The King" was one of the relatively few plays by Sophocles to be passed down from ancient times. When I have taught Greek tragedies in various classes students have reconsidered the play in terms of key concepts such as harmartia ("tragic error of judgment"), angonrisis ("recognition"), peripeteia ("reversal"), catharsis, etc., and they usually agree this play provides the proverbial textbook examples of these terms.
However, I was always bothered by the fact that Sophocles engages in some rather heavy-handed foreshadowing regarding the fact that the play's tragic hero is going to blind himself before the conclusion. The lines were closer to, dare I say, sophomoric humor than eloquently setting up the climax. But then I read something very, very interesting in Homer's "Iliad," where there appears a single reference to Oedipus which suggests that he died in battle. Remember now that Homer's epics were written several hundred years before Sophocles was born and that the Greek playwrights were allowed to take great liberties with the various myths (consider the three different versions of the death of Clytemnestra at the hands of Orestes we have from Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus). The Athenian audience would know its Homer, but "Oedipus The King" was a new play.
This leads me to advance a very interesting possibility: the Greek audience did not know that Oedipus was going to blind himself. This was a new idea. Jocasta (Iocasta) appears in the "Odyssey" when Odysseus visits Hades, but the only mention of the sin involved is in her marriage to her son, nothing about his being blind.
Obviously you will have to make your own judgment about my hypotheses, but I have to think it is at least worth consideration.
Still, there is the fact that because even those who do not know the play know the story about the man who killed his father and married his mother, "Oedipus The King" is usually misread by students. Because they know the curse they miss something very important: the curse that the oracle at Delphi tells Oedipus is not the same curse that was told to his parents (you can, to quote Casey Stengel, "look it up"). As in his play "Antigone," where the main character is not the title figure but Creon, Sophocles makes Jocasta more than a mere supporting character in this tragedy.
Consequently, while there is no need for me to convince you that "Oedipus The King" is a great play and the epitome of Greek tragedy, I have hopefully given you a couple of things to consider when next you use this play in class.
P.S. You can also play the cherubs Tom Lehrer's song for the movie version of "Oedipus The King." That will broaden their horizons in a totally unexpected direction.
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Title: Hamlet (Shakespeare Made Easy: Modern English Version Side-By-Side With Full Original Text) by William Shakespeare, Alan Durband ISBN: 0812036387 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: February, 1986 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Odyssey by Homer, Robert Fagles, Bernard Knox ISBN: 0140268863 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller ISBN: 0140481346 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 06 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ISBN: 0553212583 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 October, 1983 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Master Harold...and the Boys by Athol Fugard ISBN: 0140481877 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1984 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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