The Gods of Greece

by Arianna Huffington, Françoise Gilot

The text was originally published with other illustrations in 1983 by Harry N. Abrams Inc. Here it is repackaged with reproductions of over 65 paintings by Francoise Gilot (the paintings were created independently not expressly for the book). Neither the text nor the artwork are conventional.

Genres: Mythology

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Arianna Huffington is the chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of fourteen books.

In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

She has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.

She serves on several boards, including HuffPost’s partners in Spain, the newspaper EL PAÍS and its parent company PRISA; Onex; The Center for Public Integrity; and The Committee to Protect Journalists.

Her 14th book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder was published by Crown in March 2014 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for the first edition (Abrams, 1983), with photos by Roloff Beny , which is why I picked it up. Beny was a Canadian photographer who died young (age 60) in 1984, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roloff_... . He published exceptional work on ancient architecture and statuary. This book gives a good sampling of Greek and Roman (after lost Greek originals) classical statues of the Greek pantheon, and is well worth picking up if that's your interest. Beny also lists the museums where he photographed the works, so this would be a valuable preview for an antiquarian trip to the Mediterranean. The photos, mostly black and white, are well reproduced. The few color plates are just OK, as was typical then.

Arianna (nee) Stassinopoulos's commentary is OK but undistinguished, and I skimmed it. So, 4 Stars for Beny's photos, 2 stars for the text.

I'm currently re-reading the book and liking it more on my second read. Arianna (nee) Stassinopoulos' text is better than I recalled -- but the real star is Roloff Beny's photography, which is going up to 5 stars. He really was an exceptional photographer of classical antiquity, and Abrams gave the photos their best attention. The printing and reproduction of the duotone (black & white) prints really is extraordinarily fine. I'll have to pull down my personal copy of Beny's "The Pleasure of Ruins" and compare them. The earlier book, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... was published by Henry Holt in 1977.

The Beny photographic book I own and love is "Roloff Beny Interprets in Photographs The Pleasure of Ruins by Rose Macaulay", which is simply amazing, and I should reread it and write a real review sometime. It's his masterwork, I think.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two voices in Huffington's writing, one is the academic and the other is her personal love of mythology. With these voices combined she brings these mythos to life. For what would be a dry text she makes a very enjoyable and enlightening read.

[Dayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arianna in another role. Interesting book.