“Collector’s Edition” The Works of Lucian of Samosata: Complete with Exceptions Specified in the Preface 1905 [Premium Leather Bound]

by Henry Watson Fowler

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Genres: Classics, Philosophy, Ancient History, Poetry, Satire, Fiction, Science Fiction

267 pages, Leather Bound

First published January 1, 180

About the author

Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both A Dictionary of Modern English Usage and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary, and was described by The Times as "a lexicographical genius".

Reviews

[Jo Walton]

I'm delighted to see that I'm not in fact the only person ever to have read this.

I got it because I wanted to read The True History, which some people cite as an early (or even the first) work of science fiction. I know several people who have read this, and I disagree that it's SF, even though there's a journey to the moon, where the inhabitants are at war with the sun. It's fantasy, in exactly the same mode as the Odyssey. True History, so far, so classical wonder tale. OK.

But because what I had was the Complete Works, I read all of it, because I am like that. It's a very long book, it's been in my rotation and read in snatches for more than a year.

Here we have a neglected treasure trove of information about the classical world: philosophy, gender relations, everyday life, economics. You wouldn't believe how many modern books I've read that would have cited Lucian if they'd read him, making me sure they hadn't.

Now Lucian was a Syrian writing in Greek in the Roman period, and he was writing essays, dialogues, fiction, diatribes -- he's a rhetorician. He's closer to being a philosopher than anything, but he wasn't a philosopher with a system to study. He doesn't fit into our modern conceptions of what's interesting, and so he has been ignored. But this is so valuable as primary material, it really is, and it's beautifully translated by Fowler, and I commend it to the attention of classicists.

[Felice · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Assyrian writer as the blur above says. Um. No. Not at all. Lucian was a Greek living in a town of what is now Syria, and under a well established Roman Empire political system. This is not the translation I've been reading and if you can locate Bryan P. Reardon's from 1968 (Bobbs-Merril) or volume 1 by the Fowlers of 1905 (Oxford University Press), they are better --go for them. Why Lucian has lasted so long is because he wrote in perfect Classical Greek but he did so in a vernacular style common mostly to comedic playwrights. He is bright, logical, twisty, sometimes free ranging and often a lot of fun. Dialogues of the Dead are a funny homage to Plato, except that they are little stories of gods and heroes that sound soooo right--even when nutty, like when Ajax cannot be reasoned out of hating Odysseus for stealing Achilles' armor at Troy: armor Ajax believed was his. Or Zeus' Rants,, when the king of the gods lets loose and is like anyone's grandpa no one is listening to. Other pieces like Mennipus and a Vision and A True Story seem like much more modern works. For me this makes light, if kind of cultured, bedtime reading, persuading me that some human follies really were in existence long ago and seem to be inescapable.

[Timár_Krisztina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arányaiban nem sok komikus mű maradt fenn az antikvitásból, a komédia jelentőségét mégsem lehet, nem is szabad tagadni. Amit lehet, szedjük csak elő, sok-sok későbbi komédiásra hatottak ezek a szövegek, és általában véve a (nemcsak populáris) kultúrára is, a történelemről nem is beszélve. Ezek a szövegek ráadásul korrajzot is adnak, a mai napig érvényes megállapításokat is tesznek. Szereplőiknek mindenről van véleményük, mindenkivel vitatkoznak, és akit/amit csak lehet, kinevetnek. Mit mondjak, elég sokat nevetnek. 

Részletes értékelés a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...

[Marfita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so it's taken a while to finish this. I had a free e-book version and, boy, does that show. It's even more evident in the glossary in the back where all the entries are in all-caps and the scanner thingie just can't deal with capitals that have diacritical marks. But that's neither here nor there. Meh, you get what you pay for.

Not sure why I started it in the first place, but probably after Natalie Haynes banged on about him. And then, a lot of it was slow going. I was on the look-out for the first evidence of science fiction (call it fantasy, but it does involve going to the moon ... and the sun for that matter), the faux Jesus character (which was more about the gullibility Lucian attributed to Christians of his time), and the earliest version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Well, that last one is perfectly valid.
On the one hand, Lucian despised hypocritical philosophers, but apparently liked a specific Cynic. He cheerfully avers the non-existence of the gods and then immediately (at least it is in this edition) writes a dialog of the gods complaining there are people down there saying they don't exist. Dialogs of the gods are one of his particular favorites.
Many of the pieces are dialogs, and like the plays of the Classical period (and modern radio programs) they contain stage directions in the dialog: "Why here's that man we were just talking about approaching us holding something in his hand" sort of thing. Were these meant to be performed? I supposed that he would read these aloud to his friends and later pass them around.
There is philosophy, imagination, and comedy in here. Some of it, though, takes some wading through.

[Corentin Gastalle · Rating 3 out of 5]

lu:
-Histoires vraies livre I
-Histoires vraies livre II

[Sem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lido na edição recente e apenas o Banquete/Simpósio. Tem nessa edição? Nem sei.

[Hiéroglyphe · Rating 5 out of 5]

« Garde-toi d'écouter ce que je pourrai dire avec le respect qu'on doit à des lois et d'y prêter une foi absolue ; au contraire, si tu entends quelque chose qui ne te paraîtra pas juste, contredis-moi aussitôt et redresse mon raisonnement. Par ce moyen nous atteindrons sûrement un de ces deux avantages : ou bien tu seras fermement persuadé, quand tu auras épuisé toutes les objections que tu croiras devoir faire, ou j'aurai appris que mes idées sur le sujet n'étaient pas justes. »

Un auteur immense et curieusement méconnu. Si vous placez au plus haut point la Vérité, l'esprit sceptique, l'attaque de toutes les institutions trompeuses (en particulier les religions), Lucien est incontournable. Qui plus est, il écrit avec humour et dans un style agréable.

À lire en particulier : Alexandre ou le faux prophète, Zeus confondu, Zeus tragédien, L'ami des mensonges (la fameuse fable des balais magiques, repris ensuite par Goethe et Disney), Hermotinos ou les sectes, Histoires vraies (première récit de science-fiction de l'histoire !), Lucius ou l'âne (cité dans Le Nom de la Rose)...

L'intégrale publiée chez Robert Laffont (ed Bouquin) est d'un très bon niveau avec une introduction détaillée pour chacun des 80 textes et de nombreuses notes explicatives.

[Per · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/fowl...

It’s like a 2nd century A.D. collection of blog posts. Lucian is brilliant and “he has a tongue in his head, and is not afraid to use it. He must be a philosopher, to judge from his fluent blasphemy.”

From Wikipedia: "Lucian of Samosata (c. 125 – after 180 AD) was an Assyrian satirist and rhetorician who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac, all of his extant works are written entirely in Ancient Greek."

Gives a really good sense of how people lived, acted and thought at the time. I would give it 5/5, or 4.5/5 if that was an option, if it didn't include some sub-par entries; almost all are definitely 5/5.

[Cosmic Arcata]

I am still reading this but would like to remember where I first heard about this book? It is very good. Great witty comebacks. Amazed how smart he was.

[Joana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Li apenas três textos de Luciano:
(1) De Saltatione (A Dança)
(2) Philopseudes (O Mentiroso)
(3) Imagines (A Portrait Study)