Othello

Author: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Written: c 1604
Editors: Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen
Publisher: Modern Library (2009 Edition)
Bought from: Book Depository

Introduction

This is one of Shakespeare’s most well known tragedies. Shakespeare wrote some of his best lines for the antagonist Iago and the protagonist Othello. Some of these gems have entered our modern English usage, eg. “making the beast with two backs” (1.1.125), “green-eyed monster” (3.3.188).

What is it about?

The story is simple and unfolds itself in a straight line. Othello is a general in the Venetian forces. He marries the beautiful Desdemona. Iago causes Othello to suspect Desdemona of adultery with Cassio. Othello kills her and then commits suicide when he learns the truth.   

Themes

Iago dominates the play. He has more lines than Othello. He and Richard III are Shakespeare’s most delicious villains. The play is driven by his two objectives - destroy Othello and Cassio. Machiavellian is probably the best way to describe how he goes about doing this.

To do this, he manipulates just about every single one of the main characters, namely Othello himself, Cassio, Rodrigo, Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca. He uses only his mental faculty to get his victims to do his bidding and he does not do anything physical until he actually kills Rodrigo (5.1). He is quick to find opportunities to lay his trap. He compares himself to a spider who is able to ensnare a “great” prey with a “little” web (2.1179-180).

So, why does Iago hate Othello so much? Iago refers to the rumours that Othello may have slept with his wife Emilia (1.3.395-396, again 2.1.300-301). Iago may also be nothing more than a bigot, hating Othello simply because he is a Moor - Iago drips racism when he refers to Othello in his asides and soliloquies. At the climax of the play, a dying Othello asks Iago to explain why he has it in for him. Iago replies, in his very last lines:

“Demand me nothing: what you know, you know:
From this time forth I never will speak word.”
          (5.2.341-342)

And why does he hate Cassio so much? He suspects Cassio may also have slept with Emilia (2.1.312). But perhaps more concretely, Iago appears to be envious of Cassio because Cassio is appointed by Othello as his lieutenant, a job for which Iago thinks he is the better candidate (1.1.8-33). Iago also appears to be envious that Cassio “hath a daily beauty in his life / That makes me ugly” (5.1.19-20)

What makes Iago the consummate villain is his ability to hide his plotting behind his facade as “honest Iago”. He milks his reputation for all its worth. When Cassio laments the harm to his own reputation, Iago lectures him:

“As I am an honest man, I had thought you had received some bodily wound; there is more sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition: oft got without merit and lost without deserving: you have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser.”
          (2.3.259-264)

Later, he tells Othello:

“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls,
Who steals my purse steals trash, ’tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which does not enrich him
And makes me poor indeed.”
           (3.3.176-182)


What about the book?

Each of the books in the RSC Shakespeare series published by The Modern Library comes with very informative footnotes, helpful scene-by-scene analysis and, best of all, commentary on past and current productions that comes with interviews with leading directors and actor. The books are also very reasonably priced. Best of all, the introductions are not overly long and focus on a few talking points for each play. The paper quality is not particularly good though. Also, the covers are not very attractive.


Finally ...

My top 5 Shakespeare tragedies:

1. Hamlet
2. Romeo and Juliet
3. Macbeth
4. Othello
5. King Lear

The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus The King; Oedipus At Colunus

Author: Sophocles (c 496-406 BC)
Translator: Robert Fagles
Publisher: Penguin Books (1984 Penguin Classics Edition)
Bought from: Book Depository

Introduction

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays are extant. In terms of career, his came towards the end of Aeschylus’ and was probably contemporaneous with Euripides’. Sophocles wrote 123 plays but only seven survive intact. He is said to have won between 20-25 dramatic competitions in Athens. In comparison, Aeschylus won 14-15 competitions (sometimes placing second to Sophocles) while Euripides won only 4 or 5.

The three plays collected in this volume, in order of writing, are Antigone (c 442 BC), Oedipus the King (c. 429 BC) and Oedipus at Colonus (c. 405 BC). In terms of the story’s internal timeline, the order is Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Oedipus the King is the masterpiece of the three plays and is sometimes regarded as the greatest extant Greek tragedy and one of the greatest work of world literature. The three plays are often published together under the title The Theban Plays. But Sophocles wrote the plays not as a unified trilogy but as parts of different sets. The three plays relate to the myth of Oedipus, king of Thebes (hence the title The Theban Plays). Thebes was a city founded by Cadmus and an important part of ancient Greek mythology.

The events in The Theban Plays take place before the Trojan War (the dividing line between Greek mythology and Greek history). In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus meets the shade of Jocasta (named Epicasta in that play). Homer briefly tells the story of Oedipus but with some differences from Sophocles’ version.

Most people, even those who have never actually read the plays, will be familiar with the broad outline of the story of Oedipus. Indeed, the term “Oedipal” has entered modern English.


What is it about?

Oedipus the King takes place in Thebes. As the play begins, Oedipus has been king of Thebes for many years. Lately, a plague has struck the city. Oedipus hears a prophecy from Apollo that the plague will only be eradicated if Laius’ killer is brought to justice. Oedipus is determined to solve the cold case. As a result of his investigation, Oedipus himself unwittingly exposes the horrific sins he has committed. The familiar back story is retold. Laius and Jocasta ordered their infant son Oedipus killed because the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi had prophesised that Laius would be killed by his son. Oedipus ended up adopted in Corinth. An adult Oedipus himself received a prophecy that he would marry his mother and kill his father. To avoid this fate, he fled his adopted parents (he did not know he was adopted). He ran into a man and his servants on a cross road and, after what must be one of the earliest examples of road rage, killed the man (who was actually Laius) and all his servants except one who would later positively identify Oedipus as Laius’ killer. Oedipus arrived in Thebes and, after solving the riddle of the Sphinx, he married Jocasta and becomes King of Thebes. Back in the present day, as the evidence lead ever closer to the horrific truth, first Tiresias, the blind seer and then Jocasta plead with Oedipus to stop his investigation. Odysseus refuses to listen and finally learns the truth. Jocasta commits suicide from shame and Oedipus blinds himself.

In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus, accompanied by his daughter Antigone, goes to Colonus, a town near Athen (Colonus is believed to be Sophocles’ birthplace). Oedipus has been exiled by his sons Eteocles and Polynices. In Colonus, he learns that that Apollo has prophesised that the place where he dies will be blessed. Oedipus is warmly welcomed by Theseus the legendary king of Athens and he gratefully offers to die in Colonus as his gift to Athens. In the meantime, back in Thebes, Jocasta’s brother Creon and Eteocles have banished Polynices. Polynices has fled to Argos and is amassing an army to attack Thebes. Creon and Polynices track Oedipus down separately and each wants him to die in their respective territory. Oedipus rebuffs both of them. He foresees that his sons will kill each other in the coming battle. Oedipus dies offstage in the presence of only Theseus. A grieving Antigone leaves for Thebes to convince Polynices to stop his march against Thebes.

Antigone is set in Thebes and begins soon after the siege by the Seven Against Thebes led by Polynices was repelled. Polynices and Eteocles have killed each other, just as Oedipus has foreseen. Creon buries Eteocles but orders Polynices’ body to remain unburied on penalty of death. Antigone defies Creon and buries his brother. Creon orders Antigone to be buried alive in a cave for disobeying his edict. Tiresias warns Creon to free Antigone and properly bury Polynices or bear the consequences, including losing a son of his own loins. Creon relents but he is too late. Antigone has committed suicide. The tragedy is complete when he hears that his son Haemon, who was to have married Antigone has killed himself as has Eurydice, Creon’s wife and Haemon’s mother, after she loses her only son.


Themes

One of the main themes of the plays is the role fate plays in the lives of the main characters. The Olympian gods do not appear directly in the plays (unlike Homer’s poems). But the will of these gods - or fate - affects the characters through the prophesies emanating from the Delphic oracle. The narrative is propelled by the prophecies heard first by Oedipus’ parents and then himself. The characters do everything they can (ie. they exercise their free will) to avoid their fate but everything they do just seem to bring them closer and closer to fulfilling the prophecies. The big question is then whether anyone can be held morally responsible for his or her own actions if everything that happens is fated to happen. In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus defends himself as follows:

“Bloodshed,
incest, misery, all your mouth lets fly at me,
I have suffered it all, and all against my will!
Such was the pleasure of the gods, raging,
perhaps against our race from ages past.
But as for me alone - 
say my unwilling crimes against myself
and against my own were payment from the gods
for something criminal deep inside me ... no, look hard,
you’ll find no guilt to accuse me of - I am innocent!
Come, tell me: if, by an oracle of the gods,
some doom were hanging over my father’s head
that he should die at the hands of his own son,
how, with any justice, could you blame me?
I wasn’t born yet, no father implanted me,
no mother carried me in her womb - 
I didn’t even exist, not then! And if,
once I come to the world of pain, as come I did,
I fell to blows with my father, cut him down in blood - 
blind to what I was doing, blind to whom I killed -
how could you condemn that involuntary act
with any sense of justice?
And my mother ...
She was my mother, yes, she bore me -
oh the horror - I knew nothing, she knew nothing! -
and once she’d borne me then she bore me children,
her disgrace. But at least I know one thing:
You slander her and me of your own free will,
but I made her my bride against my will,
I repeat this to the world against my will. No,
I’ll not be branded guilty, not in that marriage,
not in the murder of my father, all those crimes
you heap on me relentlessly, harrowing my heart.”
          (lines 1096-1131)

Blindness - both real and metaphorical - is a recurrent theme. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus presses Tiresias to tell him about Laius’ murder. Oedipus who is sighted is blind to his own role in Laius’ murder. Tiresias who is literally blind knows everything and ultimately declares that the murderer is a native citizen of Thebes, brother and father to his own children and son and husband to his own mother. The theme of blindness returns in Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus is now blind and he acquires an almost supernatural ability to foresee what will happen to his sons if they persist in their civil war. He tells Polynices:

“... you’ll never tear that city down. No,
you’ll fall first, red with your brother’s blood
and he stained with yours - equals, twins in blood”
          (lines 1554-1556).

The main theme in Antigone is sadly only too familiar to anyone reading after 9/11. The play deals with the balance between the state v an individual’s rights. Creon, newly crowned king of Thebes decrees that Eteocles who died fighting for Thebes will be buried with a hero’s honors. Polynices, even though he is Creon’s own nephew, will not be buried or even mourned because he is an enemy of the state, a terrorist in modern parlance. Creon declares:

“As I see it, whoever assumes the task,
the awesome task of setting the city’s course,
and refuses to adopt the soundest policies
but fearing someone, keeps his lips locked tight,
he’s utterly worthless. So I rate him now,
I always have. And whoever places a friend
above the good of his own country, he is nothing:
I have no use for him ...
I could never stand by silent, watching destruction
march against our city, putting safety to rout,
nor could I ever make that man a friend of mine
who menaces our country. Remember this:
our country is our safety.
Only while she voyages true on course
can we establish friendships, truer than blood itself.
Such are my standards. They make our city great ...
These are my principles. Never at my hands
will the traitor be honored above the patriot.
But whoever proves his loyalty to the state -
I’ll prize that man in death as well as death.”
          (lines 194-235)

For Creon, strict obedience to the laws of the state is not negotiable. He tells his son Haemon:

“... whoever steps out of line, violates the law

or presumes to hand out orders to his superiors,
he’ll win no praise from me. But that man
the city places in authority, his orders
must be obeyed, large and small,
right and wrong.
Anarchy -
show me a greater crime in all the earth!
She, she destroys cities, rips up houses,
breaks the ranks of spearmen into headlong rout.
But the ones who last it out, the great mass of them
owe their lives to discipline.”
          (lines 746-756)

Antigone directly challenges Creon. She claims that her right to bury her brother Polynices trumps Creon’s laws: “[Creon] has no right to keep me from my own” (line 59). She says that it is her moral, perhaps even religious duty, to defy Creon’s decree:

“... It wasn’t Zeus, not in the least,
who made this proclamation - not to me.
Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods
beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men,
Nor did I think your edict had such force
that you, a mere mortal, could overide the gods,
the great unwritten, unshakeable traditions.
They are alive, not just today or yesterday:
they live forever, from the first of time,
and no one knows when they first saw the light.”
          (lines 499-508)

But Antigone is not alone in claiming the religious high ground. Creon says the gods do not care that Polynices lies unburied:

“Exactly when did you last see the gods
celebrating traitors? Inconceivable!”
          (line 326-327)


How is the book?

This is a hardcover version under the Penguin Classics series. Robert Fagles’ translation is accessible. Bernard Knox wrote very good introductions and endnotes for each plays.

Finally

Highly recommended.

Macbeth

Author: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Written: c 1606
Editors: Jonathan Bale and Eric Rasmussen
Publisher: Modern Library (2009 Edition)
Bought from: Book Depository


Introduction

It is believed that this play was written during the reign of King James I of England (formerly King James VI of Scotland). He succeeded Queen Elizabeth I and the Golden Age of Elizabethan literature and drama continued during his reign.

This is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. The only extant copy of the play is in the First Folio of 1623. It is believed that the First Folio version may have been edited, possibly by an English dramatist Thomas Middleton. This play is Shakespeare shortest tragedy (its brevity has led some scholars to believe that the First Folio version is based on a heavily cut source, perhaps a prompt-book for a particular performance). There is no sub-plot. There is no clown or fool character. The only comedy takes place over a few lines (2.3.1-38).

Macbeth and several other characters are loosely based on historical figures from 10th century Scotland but with substantial literary license to fit the Jacobean audience of that time.


What is it about?

Macbeth takes place in an unspecified time at various places in Scotland and England.

Macbeth, Thane (nobleman) of Glamis, encounters three witches who prophesy that he will become Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland. The witches then say to his ally Banquo “Thou shall get kings, though thou be none” (1.3.69). The first prophecy comes true almost immediately. To fulfill the second prophecy, Macbeth, aided and abetted by his wife (Lady Macbeth), murders Duncan the King of Scotland. Duncan’s heirs flee Scotland and Macbeth crowns himself King of Scotland.

Macbeth remembers the witches’ third prophecy and sets out to murder Banquo and his son Fleance. Macbeth’s henchmen succeed in killing Banquo but Fleance escapes. Macbeth is shaken after a visit by Banquo’s ghost and goes to see the witches. Macbeth now receives three prophecies:

(a) “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth: beware Macduff” (another noble) (4.1.77);
(b) “Be bloody, bold and resolute: laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” (4.1.85-88); and
(c) “Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care / Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: / Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dusinane Hill / Shall come against him” (4.197-101).

Macbeth learns that Macduff has fled to England leaving his family unprotected. Macbeth has everyone in Macduff’s castle including his wife and “babes” slaughtered. Duncan’s son Malcolm leads an army of Scottish and English soldiers, including Macduff against Macbeth who is in his stronghold Dusinane Castle near Birnam Wood. From Birnam Wood, the rebels advance carrying tree branches to mask their numbers, thus fulfilling the witches’ third prophecy.

In the meantime, word reaches Macbeth that Lady Macbeth has died, probably driven to suicide by the guilt of all the murders she has been party to. The battle at Dusinane Castle culminates in a face-off between Macbeth and Macduff. Macduff reveals that he “was from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripped” (ie. born by caesarean birth). Macduff kills Macbeth, thus fulfilling the witches’ first and second prophecies.

The play ends with Malcolm crowned the new King of Scotland.


Themes

Due to the brevity of the play lead, characters other than Macbeth and his wife are underdeveloped. The Macbeths are defined by a common trait, ie. ambition. Macbeth and his wife coax and cajole each other in turn to achieve Macbeth's ambition to be king. Indeed the term Lady Macbeth has become synonymous with a cold-blooded and ambitious woman. Together, they perpetrate regicide, murder and even infanticide.

The three witches brings an element of the supernatural into the play. In Hamlet, the supernatural (ie. the ghost of Hamlet’s father) is fairly benign. In Macbeth however there is a dark undertone to the prophesies the witches’ made to Macbeth and Banquo. It is almost as if they had already decided to destroy Macbeth in the very first meeting when they called him King of Scotland.

What about the witches’ prophesy that Banquo will be the father of future kings? As the play ends, it is Malcolm, and not Banquo’s son Fleance, that is crowned king. The prophecy is probably Shakespere’s nod to the fact that, during that period, King James was believed to be descended from Banquo. Apparently, this was proven wrong later. So this is one prophecy of the witches that does not come true.

What about the book?

Each of the books in the RSC Shakespeare series published by The Modern Library comes with very informative footnotes, helpful scene-by-scene analysis and, best of all, commentary on past and current productions that comes with interviews with leading directors and actor. The books are also very reasonably priced. Best of all, the introductions are not overly long and focus on a few talking points for each play. The paper quality is not particularly good though. Also, the covers are not very attractive.


Finally …

My top 5 Shakespeare tragedies:

1. Hamlet
2. Romeo and Juliet
3. Macbeth
4. Othello
5. King Lear


Et cetera

Macbeth is undone ultimately done in by what is called a literal quibble. The witches’ phrase “none of woman born” does not, as he found out, refer to a person not born to a woman. A similar word play appears in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It is prophesised that “not by the hand of man will the Witch-king of Angmar fall”. As it turns out, it was a woman and a hobbit who slay him during the climatic battle of the Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King.

Gilgamesh

Author: Unknown
Written: Unknown
Translator: John Gardner and John Maier
Publisher: Vintage Books (1985 Edition)
Bought from: Book Depository


Introduction

We have to start with a little history lesson. Civilization itself is believed to have begun in Mesopotamia – the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (the heart of modern Iraq) – roughly around 6000 BC. The first city states emerged in ancient Sumeria around 4,000 BC. The cuneiform alphabet (one of the earliest forms of writing) also developed in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. Scribes used a blunt reed as a stylus to write on clay tablets and perhaps also papyrus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform (“wedge shaped” from the Latin cuneus, meaning “wedge). It is fortunate for us that clay tablets were used. When these tablets were fired up (either deliberately in kilns or inadvertently eg. in a fire), they become hard and durable. Many such tablets (including some fragments) have been unearthed in the Middle East.

The most famous surviving literary work from Mesopotamia is The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is generally believed that Gilgamesh was a real-life king who ruled Uruk, a city-state in Mesopotamia, around 2500 BC. Scholars believe the Epic of Gilgamesh began as a series of distinct poems in the Sumerian language. They may have been first written as long ago as 2000 BC. This would make it among the oldest works of literature known to us. There are five extant poems today written in Sumerian with a common central figure named Bilgames.

At some stage, perhaps in the 1700s or 1600s BC, old Babylonian (a dialect of Akkadian) versions of a unified and longer poem began to appear. Fragments of such a poem survive today. The poem was originally titled Shūtur eli sharrī (Surpassing All Other Kings) after its opening line.

The most complete version of the poem – known today as the “standard” edition – was written in standard Babylonian (a later Akkadian dialect). The name of the author, Sin-leqi-unninni, is written in the text itself. It is believed that he compiled various older stories into the unified poem between 1300-1000 BC. This version of the poem was originally titled Sha naqba īmuru (He who Saw the Deep) after its opening line. The work consists of about 3,000 lines over 12 partially damaged clay tablets. Traditionally, the 12th tablet is included as part of the standard edition but it is now accepted that this tablet is actually a translation of one of the Sumerian Bilgames poems.

The 12 tablets, and tens of thousands more, were discovered by Austen Henry Layard and Hormudz Rassam in the ruins of the library of Ashubanirpal (who ruled Assyria from 669-631 BC) in Nineveh (near the modern day city of Mosul, Iraq) in 1849. These tablets, and tens of thousands more, were shipped to the British Museum where they remain until today. The 12 tablets were first translated by George Smith of the British Museum in 1872.

What is it about?

The story of Gilgamesh is fairly straightforward and can be divided into two parts. The first part (I.i - VII.iv) narrates the adventures of Gilgamesh and his companion (lover?) Enkidu as they fight various monsters and demons.

If the first part is basically an action adventure, the second part (VII.v - XII.vi) takes a more dramatic turn. Gilgamesh is devastated by Enkidu’s death. He sets out to obtain the secret to immortality from Utnapishtim who “stands in the assembly of the gods, and has found life” (IX.iii.4). Unfortunately, he learns that there is no magic bullet. Enkidu will not come back from the dead. And Gilgamesh himself will grow old and die one day. Pretty depressing.

The narrative in Tablet XII is inconsistent with the earlier 11 tablets. In Tablet XII, Enkidu is still alive. He dies during a quest for Gilgamesh. In modern terms, Tablet XII is like one of those alternative endings you find on DVDs.

One of the highlights of the Epic of Gilgamesh is the flood story that Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh (XI). This story has parallels with but is more detailed than the story of Noah in the Old Testament (Book of Genesis). The translation of Tablet XI in 1872 caused quite a sensation. It is generally accepted that the Gilgamesh predates the Bible. It is interesting to note that there is a short account of such a flood in one of the extant poems written in Sumerian but none in the fragments of the unified Old Babylonian version titled Surpassing All Other Kings.


What about the book?

Sin-leqi-unninni’s version of The Epic of Gilgamesh is organised into 12 six-columned tablets, for a total of seventy two columns of text. The authors set out their translation column by column and follow each column with notes. The text of the translation is accessible and the notes are informative. But I think the introduction is too much for the casual reader. I would have wanted to read more about George Smith and his work in cataloguing and translating the tablets. Fascinating stuff!


Finally …

This is one of the oldest written stories known to men. Every literate person should read this at least once.

Journey To The West

Author: Wu Chengen (c. 1500-1582)

Translator: W. J. F. Jenner

Published: Foreign Language Press (2007 printing)

Bought from: Book Depository

Introduction

Journey to the West, together with Three Kingdoms, Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh) and Dream of the Red Chamber, are considered the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. Journey to the West, like Three Kingdoms, is based on real life events but has more of the supernatural and humour thrown in.

The story is based on the travels of a Buddhist monk named Xuanzang (c. 602-664). He lived during the Tang dynasty. His 19-year journey to India was documented by a disciple in 646. Over the years, the story evolved. It is generally accepted that Journey to the West as we now know it was written during the Ming Dynasty by Wu Cheng’en. It is not known exactly when he wrote it but it was first published in print in the 1590s.

What is it about?

Journey to the West chronicles the adventures of the main characters on their to obtain Buddhist scriptures in India. The central character is Sanzang, a monk picked by the Boddhisattva Guan Ying for the mission. He is accompanied on his journey by 3 disciples:

- Monkey (Sun Wukong). He is cunning, resourceful and loyal. He is prone to violence when he gets angry. Which is often! His main weapon is the famous ruyi jingu bang, a magical rod that can shrink down to the size of a needle and expand up to gigantic proportions.

- Pig (Zhu Bajie). His insatiable greed and lust often lands the pilgrims (especially Sanzang) in trouble. 

- Friar Sandy (Sha Wujing). Compared to the other two, Sandy is obedient and level-headed.

The story is told over 100 chapters. Chapters 1-7 are essentially an origin story for Sun Wukong. In Chapters 8-12 sets out the reason for the eponymous journey. Chapters 13-22 tell of how each disciple come to join Sanzang in his pilgrimage. The rest of the novel narrates the many adventures Sanzang and his disciples on their journey.

Most of the adventures follow a set pattern: Wukong is lured or goes away. Sanzang, always too trusting and naive, falls into traps set by demons who want to either eat his flesh or bed him (because that would make them immortal). Wukong returns and beats the hell out of the demons and saves Sanzang. Sometimes, a deity or two lend a helping hand in quelling the demons.

What about the book?

The four volumes come in a simple and not especially sturdy box. The publishers could have done with better proof readers or even a spell check utility - there are several spelling errors. This is annoying but does not detract too much from the overall reading pleasure. The paper quality is extremely poor - so thin you could see the words from the side of a page. There are a number of illustrations (not very good quality, no description).

Finally ...

I do not see myself reading this again. Except maybe Chapters 1-7 (Sun Wukong's origin story). The actual adventures on the journey (from Chapters 23 onwards) are just a little repetitive. Maybe an abridged version would be better.

The Odyssey

Attributed to: Homer
Written: unknown
Translator: Robert Fagles
Publisher: Penguin Books (1997 Edition)
Bought from: Book Depository

Introduction

The Odyssey is an epic poem that is likely to have had an oral tradition. Scholars believe the poem was first written in the 8th century BC. The Odyssey, along with The Iliad, are two of western literature’s oldest extant work. Both poems are traditionally attributed to the blind poet Homer. While Homer is regarded as ancient Greece’s greatest poet, no one knows for sure when he lived.

The oldest complete manuscript of The Odyssey dates back to around the 10th or 11th century and is kept in the Laurentian Library in Florence.

The poem chronicles the 10 years it took Odysseus took to travel from Troy to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. Today, the word “odyssey” means a long and eventful journey in English.


What is it about?

The poem begins in media res in Olympus. Poseidon is away and Odysseus’ champion Athena leads a discussion on the fate of Odysseus, stranded on Ogygia, island of the nymph Calypso, for seven years. We do not know why Poseidon, who sided with the Greeks during the Trojan War has turned against Odysseus, one of the Greek heroes and delayed his return to Ithaca. With Zeus’s approval, Athena goes to Ithaca in disguise where Odysseus’ wife Penelope and son Telemachus await Odysseus’ return from the Trojan War. They are plagued by 108 suitors who are wooing Penelope while bleeding dry Odysseus’ wealth.

Athena encourages Telemachus to go to Pylos and then Sparta, capital of Lacadaemon, where Nestor and Menelaus, respectively, recount what they know about the aftermath of the Trojan War. Menelaus tells Telemachus he has heard that Odysseus is a prisoner of Calypso.

Back in Olympus, Zeus instructs Hermes to go to Ogygia and order Calypso to release Odysseus. As Odysseus is leaving, Poseidon learns of his release and shipwrecks him. Odysseus finds himself in Phaecia (or Scheria). There, without revealing his identity, he is welcomed by Alcinous, king of Phaecia. During the course of a day of songs and contests, a singer recounts episodes from the Trojan War, including the famous wooden horse stratagem devised by Odysseus. Odysseus reveals his identity and tells of what has happened to him and his crew since they sailed home at the end of the Trojan War. Odysseus recounts his encounters with the lotus-eaters, the cyclops Polyphemus (Odysseus put out the cyclops’ one eye and earned the enmity of its father Poseidon), King Aeolian and his bag of wind, the giant cannibals Laestrygonians, the goddess Circe, the shades of the seer Tiresias and others in the underworld, the irresistible Sirens, the 6-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis and finally the sacred cattle of Helios the sun god. He was the only survivor of and found himself on Calypso’s island after another shipwreck.

Alcious agrees to help Odysseus get back to Ithaca. On arrival in Ithaca, Athena disguises Odysseus as a beggar and he reveals his identity only to Telemachus, who also recently returned from his Lace. Together they slay every single suitor after an archery competition. Finally, Odysseus reveals his identity to Penelope.


What about the book?

This is a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. It is a deckle edge book with beautiful wrap-around cover. Even better, the book comes with Homer’s The Iliad and Virgil’s The Aeneid (both also translated by Robert Fagles) in a gorgeous boxed set.

Robert Fagles’ verse translation is widely acclaimed. It has been said that his translation is not literal and he has taken certain liberties. Be that as it may, his language is easy to follow and the verse flows smoothly and dramatically. Bernard Knox provides the introduction and notes. The introduction is useful and not unduly academic. The notes are at the back of the book and generally adequate. It is a little annoying, however, that they are not referenced to the text in the poem itself.


Finally ...

Highly recommended.


Et cetera

I found the following connections with the work of Hayao Miyazaki:

1. Nausicaa, Alcinous’ daughter and the first person to encounter Odysseus when he washes ashore in Phaecia is the name of the lead character, also a young princess, in the manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind written and illustrated by Miyazaki (1982-1994) and animated movie of the same name written and directed by him (1984).

2. In the animated movie Spirited Away written and directed by him (2001), the lead character’s parents and others are transformed into pigs by a witch like what Circe did to some of Odysseus’ men.

Le Morte Darthur

Author: Sir Thomas Malory (c 1405-1471)

Written: c 1469-1470

Translator: Helen Cooper

Publisher: Oxford University Press (2008 reissue)

Bought from: Book Depository

Introduction

This is a compilation of French verse romances and English works about the mythical King Arthur. It is not clear when Malory compiled this into this volume but we do know that it was first published by William Caxton in 1485.

In 1934, a manuscript copy of the work was discovered in Winchester College. The text of the Winchester Manuscript (now housed in the British Library) is different in some respects from the Caxton text and is considered to be closer to Malory’s original work.

Today, Le Morte Darthur is considered the definitive collection of Arthurian legends in the English language. 

What is it about?

The story is set primarily in 5th century England. It chronicles the adventures and misadventures of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. All the familiar figures are here – Merlin, Guinevere, Lancelot, Gawain (although Malory's Gawain is very different from the Gawain in the story of "Gawain and the Green Knight"), Tristan and Isolde, Galahad, Modred. All the familiar episodes are there – the sword in the stone, the founding of Camelot and the establishment of the Round Table, Excalibur, the quest for the Holy Grail, the illicit affair between Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur’s death at Modred’s hands.

Le Morte Darthur is divided into 8 books. Lancelot gets 2 stories, including one called inevitably The Tale of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. Gareth of Orkney and Tristram each stars in one story of their own (it is believed The Tale of Gareth may be an original story by Malory). There is a set of stories about the search for the Holy Grail. Finally, there is a somewhat surreal chapter about Arthur's conquest of Rome. These stories are book-ended by a chapter on the birth and early life of Arthur and one on his death.

Two things struck me as I read this book:

1. In modern retellings of Arthurian myth, Merlin is almost always an major character. Indeed, a number of movies and tv series even have Merlin in their title. I have fond memories of the Hallmark mini-series titled Merlin in which King Arthur's story is told from the point of view of Merlin (played by Sam Neill). In Malory’s version, Merlin plays a key (but somewhat dastardly) role in the conception of Arthur and then pretty much disappears after page 59 when he was tricked by Ninive to go under a stone. Ninive then cast spells so that Merlin "came never out for all the craft he could do."

2. In many modern Arthurian stories, Arthur pulls Excalibur from an anvil or stone and is acknowledged as King. In Malory’s version, however, Excalibur is not that sword. Arthur does pull a sword from a stone/anvil and becomes King as a result. He breaks the sword in two during a fight shortly after. Merlin then arranges for the Lady of the Lake to give Arthur a new sword - this is Excalibur.

What about the book?

This is Helen Cooper’s translation (with modernized spelling and punctuation) of the Winchester Manuscript. Her translation, from the Oxford World Classics series, is slightly abridged and all omissions are identified. There is a glossary of recurrent words, definitions of selected words at the bottom of the pages, explanatory end notes and a comprehensive index of characters. The end notes are signaled in the text so that is very handy. 

Finally …

Some parts of the work drag on a little. But because I know already how things are going to turn out, there is a sense of foreboding as I read my way to the end of the story. I will try to read Chrétien de Troyes's French romances that are, to a large extent, the model for Malory's work.

King Lear

Author: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Written: c 1605-1606
Editors: Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (2009 Edition)
Bought from: Borders Singapore


Introduction

This is one of the Bard’s major tragedies. The eponymous character is based on a mythical Celtic king. The text of King Lear as we know it today was first published in a 1608 quarto (titled True Chronicle History of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters).


What is it about?

The story is set in an unspecified period in England. The main character is the aging (and very likely senile) eponymous king. At the beginning of the story, he invites his three daughters to tell him how much they love him so that he can divide his kingdom accordingly. Goneril and Regan lay it on with a trowel while the youngest daughter Cordelia tells him plainly that she loves him as a daughter loves a father, no more and no less. King Lear banishes Cordelia as well as Kent who speaks up for her. King Lear then divides his kingdom between Goneril/Albany and Regan/Cornwall. The two daughters, having received what they want from their father, begin to mistreat him. Lear is driven mad and runs away. Meanwhile, Gloucester is tricked by his illegitimate son Edmund to disinherit his son and heir Edgar. The fates of the 2 dysfunctional family cross and culminates in a tragic dénouement. While the villains get their comeuppance, there is no happy ending for Lear or Cordelia.


Themes

The central theme of this tale is familial betrayal. Goneril and Regan betray their father. Later, they betray each other and their respective husbands to woo Edmund. Edmund himself betrays his father and brother.

In light of all the back-stabbing, it is not surprising that it seems like everyone is angry at someone in this story. Some of the play's most memorable moments spring from anger. King Lear rants at everyone and even the storm. In particular, he curses Goneril virulently:

“Hear, Nature, hear, dear goddess, hear!
Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful.
Into her womb convey sterility.
Dry up in her the organs of increase,
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honor her. If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth.
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child. Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend To make this creature fruitful. Into her womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her. If she must teem, Create her child of spleen, that it may live And be a thwart disnatured torment to her. Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth. With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks, Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits To laughter and contempt, that she may feel How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child.”
(1.4.289-303)

Cornwall is angry at Kent (he puts him in the stocks: 2.2) as well as Gloucester (he kicks or gouges out Gloucester’s eyes, uttering “Out, vile jelly!”: 3.7).

Kent and Owald get into an altercation and Kent angrily denounces Oswald: “Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter!” (2.2.65). In a Sunday Telegraph Shakespeare Survey in 2008, author Anthony Horowitz picked this as his favourite Shakespeare insult.

What about the book?

This was the first Shakespeare book I bought. It is from the Folger Shakespeare Library series. Compared to say the RSC Shakespeare volumes, this one is better in terms of -
- paper quality (white, reasonably thick)
- font size
- presentation: the text is on the right hand page and notes on the left hand page
- illustrations (although it just a little annoying though that these illustrations tend to show up many pages away from the corresponding text)

However, I feel the notes in the RSC Shakespeare series are more detailed and helpful.

Finally …

My top 5 Shakespeare tragedies:

1. Hamlet

2. Romeo and Juliet

3. Macbeth

4. Othello

5. King Lear

I will want to read King Lear again, perhaps from the RSC Shakespeare Series.

Arabian Nights

Author: Unknown

Written: Unknown

Translator: Hussain Haddawy

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (2008 Edition)

Bought from: Borders Singapore

Introduction

The Arabian Nights (also known as One Thousand and One Nights) is a collection of stories from the Middle East and India. It is not known who first compiled these stories in written form or when. There are several surviving extant manuscripts. Scholars divide these manuscripts into the Syrian branch (older, shorter) and the Egyptian branch.

Most of the extant manuscripts have the same core stories, namely:

1. The Merchant and the Demon/Jinn

2. The Fisherman and the Demon/Jinn

3. The Porter and the Three Ladies

4. The Three Apples

5. The Hunchback cycle

6. Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Bakkar and the Slave Girl Shams al-Nahar

7. The Slave Girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Khaqan

8. Jullanar of the Sea

9. Qamar al-Zaman

What is it about?

The Arabian Nights is set during the reign of the fictitious King Shahrayar in the historical Sasanid dynasty. The Sasanid dynasty ruled Persia from 226-641 AD.

King Shahrayar is cuckolded by his queen. In retaliation, he marries a virgin every day and kills her the next day after consummating the marriage. This goes on until the beautiful and resourceful Shahrazad volunteers to marry the King. She tells him stories every night, pausing when dawn breaks. The King is captivated by the stories and keeps her alive until he eventually grows to love her. 

Sharazad's stories are told in a story-within-a-story form, in several layers in some cases.

There are fantastical elements (The Merchant and the Demon/Jinn, The Fisherman and the Demon/Jinn), bawdiness (The Porter and the Three Ladies), a murder mystery (The Three Apples) and slapstick comedy (the Hunchback cycle). The last three stories in this translation are somewhat different in nature from the other - they are love stories more than anything else. Not surprisingly, perhaps, I found these stories less engaging than the others.

What about the book?

Hussain Haddawy has translated (almost unabridged) a 14th century manuscript edited by Muhsin Madhi in 1984. As this is a version of the Syrian recension, it is quite short. It contains only the core stories listed above except Qamar al-Zaman. There is no Aladdin, Sinbad or Ali Baba, all of which scholars believe were added later to the original core stories. In fact, Haddawy thinks that Aladdin may have even been added by a Frenchman in the 18th century. Haddawy's translation ends after the 271st night. Compare the translation of an Egyptian manuscript by Malcolm C. Lyons and Ursula Lyons (Penguin Classics) which does reach 1,001 nights over three volumes.

Finally ...

The first few stories were OK but the last few dragged quite a bit.