I volunteered to co-host this challenge with Rebecca because I truly think that there are some wonderful, OLD books out there that not enough people are reading. The challenge went from November '09 through February '10 and had almost 50 people sign up. There were different levels of participation but the real point was to read at least one Really Old Classic. I intended to read 4 plus a retelling but that didn't happen. Here's a recap of what I did read:
- Medea, by Euripides - This is a short but rather brutal play about the wrath of a woman scorned. I'm glad I read it.
- Volsungasaga, ancient Norse epic - This was my first experience with Norse legends; I found them to be different in many ways than the stories I was more familiar with.
- The Golden Ass (or Metamorphosis), by Lucius Apulius "Africanus" - Due to a very old-fashioned translation, I simply couldn't make it through this book. I want to try it again with a better translation though.
5 comments:
Wow - interesting reading choices. I saw Medea performed in Ancient Greek when I was at university - and although this sounds ridiculous - it was so powerful even though i could not understand the words - it was pretty clear what was going on and it is such a powerful story.
Enjoy your classics! Have you read Beowulf? You might enjoy that!
thanks for sharing
Hannah
Hannah - To be honest, Medea creeped me out a bit. I mean, I knew the story, but still ... I've heard the play is amazing though!
Good job. I totally failed and just didn't have the time to read an really old classic.
Boy I wish I had time to co-host or even participate in the challenge, but right now I feel like if I add more more thing I'm going to crack. :) Hope you find someone to help out.
Heather, let me know what I would need to do, because I'm more than interested. It sounds like fun.
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