Daphnis and Chloe

by Longus

Book Overview

A masterpiece among early Greek romances

A tender novel describing eager and inept young love, Daphnis and Chloe tells the story of a baby boy and girl who are discovered separately, two years apart, alone and exposed on a Greek mountainside. Taken in by a goatherd and a shepherd respectively, and raised near the town of Mytilene, they grow to maturity unaware of one another's existence - until the mischievous god of love, Eros, creates in them a sudden overpowering desire for one another. A masterpiece among early Greek romances, attracting both high praise and moral disapproval, this work has proved an enduringly fertile source of inspiration for musicians, writers and artists from Henry Fielding to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Maurice Ravel. Longus transforms familiar themes from the romance genre - including pirates, dreams, and the supernatural - into a virtuoso love story that is rich in insight, humorous and ironical in its treatment of human sexual experience.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140440593
• ISBN13: 9780140440591
• Release Date: June 1989
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

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.