The Form
of
Greek Romance
By
B. P. REARDON
This book is signed and inscribed by the author to August Fruge. This book is from the estate of August Fruge, in which you will find more information toward the bottom of this auction.
About the Author:
B. P. Reardon is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Irvine. He is editor of Collected Ancient Greek Novels (California).
About the Book:
In the early Roman Empire a new literary genre began to flourish, mainly in the Greek world: prose fiction, or romance. Broadly defined as a love story that offers adventure and a romantic vision of life, this form of literature emerged long after the other genres and until recently, seemed hardly worthy of critical attention. Here B. P. Reardon addresses the growing interest in ancient fiction by providing a literary and cultural framework in which to understand Greek romance, and by demonstrating its importance as an artistic and social phenomenon.
Begining with a discussion of Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe. Reardon sets out the generic characteristics of the romance. He then moves through a wide range of works, including those of Longus and Heliodorus, and reveals their sophistication in terms of social observation, technique within a convention, and the stance adopted by the authors towards their own creations. Although antiquity left behind little discussion of the genre, Reardon shows how romance can be assessed within its time period by considering the practice of narrative in other Greek literture and the concept of fiction in antiquity.
"Reardon provides an illuminating perspective from which to make sense of this genre, to rethink its place in the critical and literary theoretical map of Greek literature. Given the central diffculty of such a topic - the near-total neglect of the genre by ancient critics - the book is remarkably successful, both in recontruction how critics and writers might have understood it and in explaining why they failed to articulate their views. Written in a clear, non-technical style, this study should prove extremely useful to scholars and students of literature in general.
Publisher:
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton, New Jersey
Copyright:
1991
By Princeton University Press
First Edition.
First Printing by the number line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
There is no price on the dust jacket and has not had a price on it.
Stats and Measurments:
Hardbound with the dust jacket. Beige / Tan cloth covered boards with the title, author, and publisher in gold, with the title in a brown block on the spine. 9 1/2" x a little under 6 1/2" and consisting of 194 pages to include the index.
Condition:
Good. There are no tears and no handwritting in the book other than where the author inscribed the book to August Fruge. The cover has minor wear and sun fading to the spine. It has protected the cover which is in good condition. The pages are all secure in the binding.
A nice book for a collector or reader of Greek literature. This would also make a nice gift.
This would also make a nice addition to any library.
The previous owner of the book August Fruge was often called "the Alfred Knopf of university press publishing," August Frugé died in Twentynine Palms, California, on July 6 after a series of strokes. He was 94 years old. Considered one of the great publishers of the twentieth century, Frugé devoted his life to books, publishing, classical history, scholarship, and the environment.
I bought this at the same sale to show provenance.
After graduation from Stanford he earned his Master's Degree at the University of California, Berkeley, Library School and worked at the California State Library, Sacramento. In 1944 he was lured away by Samuel Farquhar, then director of the University of California Press in Berkeley, as assistant director and sales manager. Upon Farquhar's sudden death in 1951, Frugé was appointed to succeed him. Thus began an extraordinary growth of the University of California Press from a small, monograph-oriented press to a world-class scholarly publisher of numerous works, many of them best sellers, averaging some 200 titles annually.
He had few illusions about publishing as a noble calling. He often quoted Mark Twain's description of a publisher: "A tall, lean, skinny, yellow, toothless, baldheaded, rat-eyed professional liar and scoundrel." In fact, the Press has published and continues to publish the complete works, letters, and papers of Mark Twain—another monumental scholarly publishing project established during Frugé's tenure.
He is a member of the Publishing Hall of Fame and past-President of the Association of American University Presses. He served for years on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club and was a key player in the publishing struggles during David Brower's stormy administration. Brower had entered publishing at the University of California Press so his relationship with Frugé was a lengthy one and, in the end, friendly. He was also a Fellow (along with his late wife Susan) and past-President of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS). His reorganization of the CNPS transformed the organization into one of California's leading environmental organizations and set the standard for other native plant organizations around the country.
All books are well packed and shipped in new boxes. The cost of shipping includes, Media shipping, Postal Delivery Confirmation, a brand new box, and the plastic bags, along with the cushing that the book is secured in before packing.
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