Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theater

by Bernard Knox

From review - "One of the best books on ancient theater ever written. Knox brings his incisive and creative critical insights to this subject in a very readable manner."

Genres: Classics

392 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1979

About the author

Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox (Ph.D., Classics, Yale University; M.A. Harvard University; B.A., St. Johns College Cambridge, 1936) was a classicist, author, and critic. He taught at Yale until 1961, when he moved on to become the first director of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC. He was the editor of The Norton Book of Classical Literature and wrote the introductions and notes for Robert Fagles’s translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

In 1939 he married American novelist Betty Baur, who wrote under the name Bianca van Orden. He served in the United States Army during World War II, making his way from private to captain between 1942 and 1945 in the European Theatre, and was awarded a Croix de Guerre a l'Ordre de l'Armée for parachuting behind Allied lines in Brittany to arm and organize French Resistance forces. Knox additional was the recipient of the 1977 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, 1977 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism (1990), and the Charles Frankel Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities (1990).

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

IF you are interested in Ancient Greek theater, this book is for you. Knox looks at many aspects of the performances (both ancient and modern) in detail. I think it must have been a great experience to be in a class with him.

[k · Rating 5 out of 5]

banger after banger.. everyone say thank you bernard

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

His close readings are indispensable for the Greekless reader. See especially "Aeschylus and the Third Actor," "The Ajax of Sophocles," "Second Thoughts in Greek Tragedy," and "Euripidean Comedy."

[Clifton Toliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on ancient theater ever written. Knox brings his incisive and creative critical insights to this subject in a very readable manner. Highly recommended.