Plutarch's Lives (review)

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

reviews 183 Thoreau (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1970) without even acknowledging this. Perhaps because Lebeaux has argued a similar case on the firesetting incident of 1844 Wagenknecht can assume such "conjecture" has passed into "established fact," that altar of American pragmatism where we would all gladly worship. Wagenknecht presents Thoreau in the manner of a moral hero, a "character" study in the old sense. He aims to present Thoreau in all his factuality and opinionatedness, a man whose greatness cannot be simply analyzed in origin or judged in effect. But, regrettably, this book does not have the living feel of the man nor his works and days. Can such well-intentioned biographies still be written with so little self-consciousness of method and aim? We might even lament with Thoreau, "Is not the poet bound to write his own biography?" Rob Wilson Seoul University Alan Wardman, Plutarch's Lives. London: Elek Books Limited, 1974. 274 pp. $19.95. Plutarch is not included among 119 contributors to modern biography cited in Anthony M. Friedson's summary of expert opinion appended to New Directions in Biography (Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1981). This is surprising and understandable. Plutarch (c. A.D. 45-120), his works, mainly The Parallel Lives and Moralia, and his age are slipping out of late 20th century consciousness . Except for a few, we are no longer competent in classical Greek. The translations that are commonly available, in English at least, are somewhat archaic. They also inspire suspicion that various terms are being chosen for literary effect to express the same Greek word that would more clearly reveal the content and pattern of Plutarch's thought. Furthermore the frequently encountered editions of selected Greeks and/or Romans, chosen from Plutarch's fifty-person repertoire by criteria that compound the undertainties of his own, tend to inhibit more profound understanding. Almost always they omit the comparative sections, thus missing a sense of what Plutarch was, is, and can be all about. These assertions require testing rather than faithful acceptance. This can be done by comparing various translations with that of the eleven-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of Plutarch's Lives accomplished by Bernadotte Perrin between 1914 and 1926 (Cambridge: 184 biography Vol. 6, No. 2 Harvard University Press). Also compare the various editions of selected lives with the complete collection, paying special attention to the eighteen formal comparisons that encompass thirty-eight lives. Note also that eight additional paired lives are uncompared and that four lives are unpaired for a total of fifty. (To complete the Plutarchan comparative task is an unsolved puzzle). Within each life note the frequent lack of interpretation, sometimes even in the Loeb edition, at points where the general reader needs expert help. Contemporary professions do not hold Plutarch in high regard. He is not considered a great historian. His works are of interest mainly for references to texts now lost. He is not considered a great political philosopher . His writings are rarely read in departments of political science . He is not considered a great literary stylist. He is not held up as a model of exposition. Plutarch may have inspired Shakespeare, American fathers of revolution, and French rebels and reactionaries, but today few artists or activists claim him. Yet when lives are discussed, the image of Plutarch is apt to slip back into collective consciousness. This happened in the symposium devoted to exploration of New Directions in Biography, despite the absence of references in response to the pre-conference questionnaire. The index shows five references to Plutarch by symposium authors. In content, one of these is certainly true (p. ix); one might be true but has not much to do with Plutarch (p. 76); one is incidentally true, but is not Plutarch's main intent (p. 5); one is debatable and probably inappropriate (p. viii); and one is incorrect (p. 41). Alan Wardman's Plutarch's Lives, the first general study of Plutarch 's biographical purposes and methods, provides a basis for making these and other judgments. Wardman, a lecturer in classics at the University of Reading, inspires confidence. There is nothing inevitable about Plutarch making a contribution to late 20th century biography...