The Bad Boy of Athens: Classics from the Greeks to Game of Thrones

(Paperback)

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Mendelsohn takes the classical costumes off figures like Virgil and Sappho, Homer and Horace He writes about things so clearly they come to feel like some of the most important things you have ever been told. Sebastian Barry
Over the past three decades, Daniel Mendelsohns essays and reviews have earned him a reputation as our most irresistible literary critic (New York Times). This striking new collection exemplifies the way in which Mendelsohn a classicist by training uses the classics as a lens to think about urgent contemporary debates.

There is much to surprise here. Mendelsohn invokes the automatons featured in Homers epics to help explain the AI films Ex Machina and Her, and perceives how Ted Hughes sought redemption by translating a play of Euripides (the bad boy of Athens) about a wayward husband whose wife returns from the dead. There are essays on Sapphos sexuality and the feminism of Game of Thrones; on how Virgils Aeneid prefigures post-World War II history and why we are still obsessed with the Titanic; on Patrick Leigh Fermors final journey, Karl Ove Knausgaards autofiction and the plays of Tom Stoppard, Tennessee Williams, and Nol Coward. The collection ends with a poignant account of the authors boyhood correspondence with the historical novelist Mary Renault, which inspired his ambition to become a writer.

In The Bad Boy of Athens, Mendelsohn provokes and dazzles with erudition, emotion and tart wit while his essays dance across eras, cultures and genres. This is a provocative collection which sees todays master of popular criticism using the ancient past to reach into the very heart of modern culture.

Reviews

Praise for The Bad Boy of Athens

Mendelsohn takes the classical costumes off figures like Virgil and Sappho, Homer and Horace He writes about things so clearly they come to feel like some of the most important things you have ever been told. Sebastian Barry

Captivating His is a vast intellect spanning centuries and genres with ease. BBC Culture

Mendelsohn's points are always passionately argued. He strikes the perfect balance between learned and playful One fascinating essay after another from one of America's best critics. Kirkus, starred review

Praise for Daniel Mendelsohn

A scrumptious stylist He writes better movie criticism than most movie critics, better theatre criticism than most theatre critics and better literary criticism than just about anyoneGuardian

A brilliant storyteller, influenced by the Greek masters he so admires The Times

Mendelsohn is now, and has been for some time, the finest critic alive [The essays] proceed from an unparalleled understanding of the Greek and Roman roots of storytelling, which he braids into reviews with a subtlety and patience that is beautiful to behold A supremely entertaining book Toronto Star

Mendelsohn is a gifted and entertaining writer. His prose is gorgeous and lyrical and his subjects are smartly considered and freshly revealed Vanity Fair

Absolutely vital in both senses of the word required reading for anyone interested in dissecting culture The Daily Beast

A joy from start to finish A wonderfully eclectic set of musings on the state of contemporary culture and the enduring riches of classical literature Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Daniel Mendelsohn was born in Long Island and educated at the University of Virginia and at Princeton. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books as well as the New York Times Magazine and the New York Times Book Review, and is contributing editor at Travel + Leisure. His previous books include the memoir The Elusive Embrace, a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year, and the international best seller The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Prix Mdicis, and many other honours. He teaches at Bard College.