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A review by gaea
Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides by Euripides
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This rating includes the translation as well as the plays by Euripides himself.
The translation was done by Anne Carson and makes these plays easy to read and understand. She chose to include four plays (Herakles, Hekabe, Hippolytos and Alkestis) which she prefaced with her own notes to allow the reader to understand the context of the given plays. The prefaces have proven to be quite useful to help understand the genre and tradition. I would advise others to re-read the preface after having finished each play, because it helped me to reflect on every single play more in-depth.
The plays were quite intriguing and different from other greek plays I have read so far. The atmosphere seems a lot more dark and bleak, leaving the characters and the readers without a speck of hope about the ending of some of the characters. But Euripides also gives us a different portrayal on topics like war, sacrifice and loss, taking the glamour and heroicness out of it.
The translation was done by Anne Carson and makes these plays easy to read and understand. She chose to include four plays (Herakles, Hekabe, Hippolytos and Alkestis) which she prefaced with her own notes to allow the reader to understand the context of the given plays. The prefaces have proven to be quite useful to help understand the genre and tradition. I would advise others to re-read the preface after having finished each play, because it helped me to reflect on every single play more in-depth.
The plays were quite intriguing and different from other greek plays I have read so far. The atmosphere seems a lot more dark and bleak, leaving the characters and the readers without a speck of hope about the ending of some of the characters. But Euripides also gives us a different portrayal on topics like war, sacrifice and loss, taking the glamour and heroicness out of it.