Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations

Mary Beard is among the best historians writing today. Her books on Rome and Greece are superb. Confronting the Classics was a real surprise for me. This collection of book reviews by Beard turned out to be much more readable and much more coherent and cohesive than I had expected. While I have read almost none of the books she reviews, that didn’t seem to make a difference. Yes, she is responding to the works of others. But, she adds to what they have said (or what they seem to have said), by taking the discussion to new levels. Mary Beard is best at asking unexpected questions. “Why do building have doors and what are they for?” Thought I knew the answer to that question, but it turns out that there is always much more to the story. And, it turns out that the functions of things and people in the ancient world is often different from I had supposed. With Mary Beard there is never a dull moment, even when the subject has the potential to be very dull in deed.

Professor Mary Beard is one of the world's best known classicists. That may not be all that enlightening to those of us who don't spend our time studying Greek and Latin literature and history, but do not fear to pick up Confronting The Classics on that account. Beard writes engagingly and wittily, making the Greeks and Romans who are the subjects of these essays into real people rather than marble statuary or frozen mosaics. The essays in this book were originally written as book reviews for the Times Literary Supplement and other British periodicals, or are transcripts of talks Beard has given. Reading them reminds me of some of the best of my own college professors, and makes me wish that I could be in one of Professor Beard's audiences.The book is divided into five sections containing 31 essays. Chapter titles like "Alexander: How Great?," "Bit-part Emperors," and "Don't Forget Your Pith Helmet" are inviting, and they suggest a lightness of tone which does not detract from the soundness of the scholarship. Much of the book unavoidably deals with the activities of generals, emperors, and empresses, but there is also a section called "Rome from the bottom up" which is concerned with ex-slaves, conquered peoples, and ordinary Roman soldiers stationed in far outposts of the Empire. As a long time admirer of "I,Claudius", I enjoyed the chapters that dealt with the Emperors Augustus and Caligula and which described some of the efforts made by Jack Pulman and the producers to film Robert Graves' novel. Perhaps the most entertaining, if somewhat enigmatic chapter is "What Made the Greeks Laugh?", which reminds us that humor usually doesn't travel well or survive much past the time in which it was written.I enjoyed Confronting The Classics. It's an engaging, often amusing read based on very sound scholarship that opens the doors of the museums and libraries a bit to let us see the Greeks and Romans as actual people not all that different from us.

Although the Romans reportedly abhorred monarchy, they now have a Queen of the Classics in Mary Beard. Ms. Beard is not sparing in her criticisms and one gets the sense that she believes that she is the last word on most things ancient. Nevertheless, she obviously knows her stuff, but more so, endlessly cautions that, very often in the classics, the story is far more than the evidence that supports it. I believe that the most we can know, particularly here, is that we don't know. Humans typically are impatient to find facts, and in this field, that is very dangerous. I was, at first, disappointed to learn that so much ancient art is in fact reproduction. After going to Pompeii last year, I read Ms. Beard's book on that subject and was again disappointed knowing that perhaps something I touched there was not actually there in 79 AD. But if that is the truth then so it should be told. I am reminded of a talk that Kennedy biographer Robert Dalleck gave where he described a young Vassar student who had a long affair with Kennedy while he was in office. A young woman asked him why he had to say that and apparently taint the image she wanted to harbor of him. Because it was the truth, he said. No more reason necessary.

More academic than straight history, this does offer insights in both the history itself and especially in the lives and views of those who have written and interpreted that history. Roman blades were sharp, and so are those who write about them. Don’t pay much for this, but it is enjoyable.

Loved everything about it. Mary Beard's book is erudite and thoroughly enjoyable. If you love Roman history as much as she obviously does, this is well worth the read. Her range of expertise in the area is phenomenal, and she is adept at recounting moments in Roman history that will appeal to laypersons as well as scholars. Most of the essays are book reviews written at the beginning of this millennium. While none of them enticed me to read any of the books she reviewed, the background she gives to each period or theme covered by the authors and her criticism and/or praise for aspects of their books are well worth the read, and there's much to learn from it. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in Roman history.

Potential buyers should be aware that, apart from the introduction and the opening essay, this book is a collection of a number of Mary Beard's book reviews. She uses the introduction to frame the reviews into a kind of narrative, a narrative indicating points of contention in our understanding of the classical world. The reviews themselves are arranged in chronological order by subject. While her reviews give you a sense of what the original book says, on some occasions I did find myself thinking, "I need to have read the original to appreciate what the review says." Hence, the reviews that I found most useful and interesting were the reviews of books that I have already read. Nonetheless, Dr. Beard is never dull: she always writes with energy and enthusiasm. Several of her reviews made me want to look up the original books.

Maybe I didn't read the product info carefully enough but I was mildly disappointed to discover that this book is merely a collection of book reviews. Which begs the question - why would you want to read them unless you were intending to buy the books? To be fair there is quite a lot of information and discussion aside from Mary Beard's critiques of the books but I am still left with the feeling that she was just seizing the opportunity to make some more cash out of her reviews.I'm not sure why the title is 'Confronting the Classics'. Confronting the hapless authors might be more accurate as barely one escapes without being judged wanting to some degree. And occasionally Mary Beard rubbishes someone else's theory without citing the authority for her own opinions.Lastly, this is not a book for the general reader. Unless you are interested in why Romulus murdered Remus (if, in fact, he did, assuming they existed at all) or why Thucydides is such a difficult author to get to grips with, I would give this a miss.

I liked, as ever, Professor Beard's outstanding ability to match serious scholarship with witty disrespect. In this she never disappoints. I learnt a lot from this book and laughed a lot too. What I did dislike, and disliked quite considerably, was the failure to warn readers that the pieces are book reviews albeit very good reviews of books which with only one exception I had not read. While I trust her reasons for applauding or disliking each of these books, reading the reviews was a bit like reading a cookery book about dishes you have never eaten and probably never will. Reviews aren't really essays. I never thought I would have to rate a book by one of my favourite authors so lowly.

Classics - Alive and Kicking: This discussion of primary and secondary sources of the classical era is a miniature tour de force. Mary Beard appraises us of the paucity of documentation for some periods and issues of bias, invention and a predilection for anecdote of some classical authors. She warns us of how certain authors ingratiated themselves with the new emperor by denigrating the old. She fruitfully explores the relationship between written and archaeological sources and the latter's problems of interpretation, preservation and restoration (Knossos, Pompeii, Laocoon). She acknowledges the creative use made of a fortune-teller's compendium of questions and answers to gain insights into the lives of the lower and middling orders. Her explanations of the obtuseness of Thucydides and Tacitus is revealing - still causing classical scholars head-aches about what they actually meant. Each chapter is short, entertaining and dense and I only realised half-way through that it is a collection of her book-reviews over the last 16 years which she has edited and adapted for this volume. She rightly argues that classical studies entail a continuing dialogue, not only with primary sources (Suetonius, Cassius Dioi et al) but also with all classical scholarship since. However, her analysis of Sappho was not quite as rounded as Margaret Mountford's T.V. account. My old tutor, K.D.White, would have liked more on agriculture (including the Carthaginian treatise the Senate wanted translating!), technology and the economy in general. She upbraids other authors for their use of 'bons mots' but is quite lavish in her own sprinkling (apt and funny in the main). But this is carping. This is an erudite and accessible opus by an academic at the top of her profession and in complete command of her discipline. I learned a huge amount from this little tome.

Just a selection of republished reviews where she briefly touches on a topic, then derides whichever academic's work she's reviewing. A single sentence in a book that she disagrees with results in the entire work being dismissed. Came across as personal and vindictive point-scoring to me. That's also the one where she also laments that sexual predation by academics is no longer allowed!

This book comprises a set of book reviews written for various non-specialist magazines. So, in a way, the information on the classical world is offered somewhat tangentially. But there is plenty of Ms Beard's erudition and wit on display as well as an insight into the world of classics academics (including a serial groper who you would hope would have a rather harder time in these more enlightened days). Overall, an enjoyable read with some good academic knockabout, but not a history book