The Novel in Antiquity

by Tomas Hägg

Book Overview

Tracing the development of Greek romances from 200 B.C. through twelfth-century Byzantium, Tomas H gg analyses the content, plot and narrative techniques of the ancient novel, and explores the social and literary milieu in which the genre flourished.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520076389
• ISBN13: 9780520076389
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The oldest novels?

Hagg traces the birth of the modern novel to written tales amongst the Greek speaking populations of the eastern Mediterranean in the last centuries BC. He suggests that from that era, the Greeks developed our modern conception of what a novel is. He summarises key contemporary Greek tracts and compares them against each other and indeed often subjects them to a modern analysis. The style of his discourse is not dry; his wit often shows through. He claims that most Greek literature can be understood from the point of view of the novel. To readers who, like me, never majored in ancient Greek history, let alone be able to read Greek, Hagg can make 2000 year old narratives come to life.