Bücher der Reihe Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

An inviting and highly readable new translation of Aristotle's complete Poetics-the first and best introduction to the art of writing and understanding storiesAristotle's Poetics is the most important book ever written for writers and readers of stories-whether novels, short fiction, plays, screenplays, or nonfiction. Aristotle was the first to identify the keys to plot, character, audience perception, tragic pleasure, and dozens of other critical points of good storytelling. Despite being written more than 2,000 years ago, the Poetics remains essential reading for anyone who wants to learn how to write a captivating story-or understand how such stories work and achieve their psychological effects. Yet for all its influence, the Poetics is too little read because it comes down to us in a form that is often difficult to follow, and even the best translations are geared more to specialists than to general readers who simply want to grasp Aristotle's profound and practical insights. In How to Tell a Story, Philip Freeman presents the most readable translation of the Poetics yet produced, making this indispensable handbook more accessible, engaging, and useful than ever before.In addition to its inviting and reliable translation, a commentary on each section, and the original Greek on facing pages, this edition of the Poetics features unique bullet points, chapter headings, and section numbers to help guide readers through Aristotle's unmatched introduction to the art of writing and reading stories.

"A selection of key passage from Aristotle's seminal work the Nicomachean Ethics, which sets out what it means to flourish and live life well"--

"It doesn't take long after learning to speak for children to utter the cry, "That's not fair!" That familiar exclamation seems to emerge from a primal human sense: you know how you deserve to be treated, and you know that you have not been treated that way-you've been given a raw deal, you've not been done right by. In this volume for our Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series, Robert Kaster explores how we treat others at the everyday, person-to-person level, taking as his source the ethical writings of the Stoic philosopher Seneca. Though Seneca does not quite address the demands of "fairness" as the central topic in any of his ethical writings, relevant principles and words of advice appear throughout them. Kaster has selected passages from "On Benefits" and "On Mercy," the twelve short essays on disparate themes collected in his "Dialogues," and the most influential of his works, the "Moral Epistles." He takes as his organizing principle one of the key premises of Stoic thought: you cannot do right by others unless you sort yourself out first, and sorting yourself out begins and ends with your mind. Doing right by others requires cultivating a great mind (magnus animus) and achieving magnanimity (magnanimitas), the quality that ensures (among other things) that one always give others what they deserve-in every way, from material goods to personal respect, and even punishment. He has organized the selections into five chapters, each giving a different view of doing the right thing when it comes to our relations with others: "Striving for Magnanimity"; "Being Calm, Thinking Clearly"; "Judging Yourself Fairly"; "Doing Right by Others"; and "Being Merciful.""--

"Drawing on ancient writers, from Aesop to Ovid, classicist and working farmer, Mark Usher compiles in this book an anthology of Greco-Roman passages illustrating how they thought about animals and illuminating they might help us to rethink our relationships with them."--