The Vulgar Eclectic

Tag: classics

  • Andromache by Euripides

    I still have a few back-logged book jots I want to post. Here is one from December 2021: I just finished reading the play Andromache by Euripides (late 5th century BC), translated by Philip Vellacott. It is one of many tales from antiquity describing the rippling effects of the Trojan War and the lives of…

  • Dream Tales and Prose Poems by Ivan Turgenev

    I finished reading Dream Tales and Prose Poems (1879-1882) by Ivan Turgenev (translated by Constance Garnett). It contains the following short stories: “Clara Militch,” “Phantoms,” “The Song of Triumphant Love,” and “The Dream,” as well as a collection of numerous vignettes, titled “Poems in Prose.” This was a great read! I love Turgenev’s writing and,…

  • Alexander the Great by Jean Racine

    I finished reading Alexander the Great, a five-act tragedy written by Jean Racine and first produced in 1655. The version I read was a translation published in 1890 by Robert Bruce Boswell. I haven’t always enjoyed translations I’ve found in the public domain, but found this one to be excellent. The action of the play…

  • Oedipus by Seneca

    I just finished reading Oedipus by Seneca (1st century AD), translated by E. F. Watling. This play deals with familiar Greek myth, specifically the story of Oedipus, more well-known from the earlier Theban plays of Sophocles. Seneca’s writing is darker and more violent than his Greek predecessor and, while the basic structure of the plot…

  • The Eumenides by Aeschylus

    Finished reading The Eumenides by Aeschylus, the third part of the Oresteia.

  • The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus

    The Libation Bearers (The Choephori) by Aeschylus (translated by Robert Fagles); second part of The Oresteia.

  • Agamemnon by Aeschylus

    Agamemnon by Aeschylus, first part of the Oresteia

  • The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky

    I just finished reading The Lower Depths (translated by David Magarshack), a play written by Maxim Gorky in 1902. It brutally depicts the lives of several poor Russians who are living in the cramped basement of a boarding house. The characters are superbly drawn. Through the dialogue, Gorky is able to ask profound questions regarding…

  • The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper

    I just finished reading The Pathfinder (1840) by James Fenimore Cooper. Although it’s the fourth novel Cooper wrote in the Leatherstocking Tales, it is the third in the chronology of the series. The novel is set around the year 1758, in the midst of the French and Indian War. Pathfinder (known at various times throughout…

  • The Power of Darkness by Leo Tolstoy

    I finished reading The Power of Darkness (1886) by Leo Tolstoy. It’s a five act tragedy set in a peasant village in 19th century Russia. Several of the characters commit increasingly depraved acts, culminating in a particularly vile crime. As these actions and their outcomes are contrasted with another, sympathetic character, I was left with…