Daphnis and Chloe

by Longus

Book Overview

Longus's romance tells the story of two teenagers, Daphnis and Chloe, who love each other but do not know how to make love. Around their predicament Longus weaves a fantasy which entertains and instructs, but never errs in taste. The hard toil and precariousness of peasant life are here, but so are its compensations--revelry, music, dance, and storytelling. Above the action brood divinities--Eros, Dionysus, Pan, the Nymphs--who collaborate to guide the adolescents into the mystery of Love, at once a sensual and a religious initiation. Daphnis and Chloe is the best known, and the best, of the early Greek romances, precursors to the modern novel. Admired by Goethe, it has been reinterpreted in music and art by Ravel and Chagall. This new translation is immensely readable, and does full justice to the humor and humanity of the story.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199554951
• ISBN13: 9780199554959
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Excellent condition, great price

The book is in fantastic condition for an excellent price, delivered in a timely fashion, thank you.

Amazing. Challenging Greek

I'd read and enjoyed this ancient novel before in the amazing Collected Ancient Greek Novels. Now I'm about 2/3 of the way through JACT's Reading Greek 3 book set, so I bought this Loeb version to see how I could handle the Greek. Not so good. Turns out like other Greek novelists Longus wrote long grammatically complicated sentences using a wide vocabulary. Well beyond my poor powers at this stage. Someday.... So. I'd recommend the Loeb if you like Loebs, or if you're an ancient Greek reader or intermediate to advanced student. If you're a baby-intermediate Greek student, Loeb's Josephus and Xenophon, are better bets. If you just want a copy of this story, I think Reardon's Collected Ancient Greek Novels is a better deal. It has not just D and C, but ALL surviving ancient Greek novels, including fragments.

A delightful tale

The story dates from classical Greece. After two thousand years, the story is still fresh and charming - the sign of a true classic. It's about young love, eager and inept, with gods, pirates, and other harmless excitement. The writer included the happy fumblings of physical affection that a modern author would have shied from, sweet and not at all salacious. The story finishes with an improbable and triumphantly happy ending. Good happy fun, and not a lengthy read.Beyond the story itself, I found this book very informative. The story is supposedly one that Shakespeare read, and it shows. Some of the Bard's endings look a bit recycled once you've read Daphnis and Chloe. I also found that it explained Marc Chagall's cycle of lithographs - the images make more sense, now that I've seen their inspiration. In addition, there's satisfaction in knowing that this story, with such influence on such great minds, and is now a part of my education, too.All that was extra reward, though. I wanted the book because Chagall's illustration. It's there, in dozens of beautiful color reproductions, including some two-page spreads. Up til now, Marc Chagall has always been in the lower ranks among my favorite artists. After seeing his work in this book, I have a new respect for it. He's still not among my very favorites, but I enjoy the lithos shown here. Even more, I enjoy them as a coherent body visual work and as a narrative.Best, though, is quality of this book for its price. It's well printed on heavy stock, and the color printing is strong and nuanced. The production values in the color pages and the sheer number of them are quite astonishing for a book that costs so little. I plan to enjoy this book for a long time.

Sheer, unadulterated bliss.

Man...Daphnis and Chloe. Surely, this is one of the Best Things Ever. An utterly gorgeous evocation of innocent, sweetly naive pastoral life. I honestly can't think of a single work of literature I've enjoyed more. It's short, but richly deserving of multiple readings. If you're not capable of enjoying it, I don't want to know you. It is truly Great, capital 'G'. However, in the interest of objectivity, I should note that there is one thing about it that somewhat irks me: in the end, the title characters are revealed to by of noble birth. That's not a spoiler; you know it right from the get-go. So, while it was inevitable, it just didn't quite work for me. I would have liked to see them go on in idyllic splendour (note the British spelling) forever. That, however, is a minor quibble. You must read this. It could even save your life: let's say you've read it, and then, sometime later, for whatever reason, you decide to commit suicide. You'd be very likely to think, at some point, 'hey, wait a minute--I can't die now; I need to reread Daphnis and Chloe!' So then you'd turn the engine off, and after you finished your rereading, you'd realize, 'hey--life is GOOD! What was I thinking?' And you'd be right. Something like this couldn't exist if the world wasn't in some sense fundamentally good.

Chagall is a Genius

This book masterfully combines a beautiful love story with amazing lithographs by Chagall. Chagall brings spring to the canvas with his omnipitant use of color and his composition remnisant of ambrosia and nectar. Emphisizing the Greece of Aphrodite, the sensuality of the mortal body, and simplicity of true love, Chagall combines vibrant colors, simple figures, and a flowing narrative to achieve perfection. To put it bluntly, the book should be bought if only for the lithograph reproductions, which turn out quite well. The quality is well worth the extraordinary good price, having seen the originals on display in galleries for upwards of $19,000.