Plato Unmasked: The Dialogues Made New
A daring translator, Quincy gives the most acclaimed of ancient thinkers a saucy new voice: colloquial, pungent, and terse. Animated by a new tone, the characters in Plato's classic dialogues speak with vernacular directness as they ask Socrates why he is "always hanging around" or as they complain that he's "driving [them] nuts." But even as he gives Plato's characters license to speak in casual idioms, Quincy trims their speeches, abridging dialogues he judges verbose. As if such tampering with Plato's words weren't enough to scandalize traditionalists, Quincy supplements the chronologically arranged dialogues with historical notes that cast unflattering shadows on the Greek philosopher and his famous tutor: Plato stands exposed as a propagandist hiding his own political blunders, Socrates as an ill-tempered slanderer of a gifted rival. Such irreverence will send some readers scurrying for the cover of canonical translations. But Quincy's brashness will attract many readers glad to see Plato and Socrates rescued from their honorific spots among the museum alabasters, set free to again discomfit and perplex the complacent.Bryce ChristensenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an alternateHardcoveredition.