{"product_id":"9780007545162_the-bad-boy-of-athens-classics-from-the-greeks-to-game-of-thrones","title":"The Bad Boy of Athens: Classics from the Greeks to Game of Thrones","description":"\u003ch2\u003e‘Mendelsohn takes the classical costumes off figures like Virgil and Sappho, Homer and Horace … He writes about things so clearly they come to feel like some of the most important things you have ever been told.’ \u003cstrong\u003eSebastian Barry\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the past three decades, Daniel Mendelsohn’s essays and reviews have earned him a reputation as ‘our most irresistible literary critic’ (\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e). This striking new collection exemplifies the way in which Mendelsohn – a classicist by training – uses the classics as a lens to think about urgent contemporary debates.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is much to surprise here. Mendelsohn invokes the automatons featured in Homer’s epics to help explain the AI films \u003cem\u003eEx Machina\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eHer\u003c\/em\u003e, and perceives how Ted Hughes sought redemption by translating a play of Euripides (the ‘bad boy of Athens’) about a wayward husband whose wife returns from the dead. There are essays on Sappho’s sexuality and the feminism of \u003cem\u003eGame of Thrones\u003c\/em\u003e; on how Virgil’s \u003cem\u003eAeneid\u003c\/em\u003e prefigures post-World War II history and why we are still obsessed with the Titanic; on Patrick Leigh Fermor’s final journey, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s autofiction and the plays of Tom Stoppard, Tennessee Williams, and Noël Coward. The collection ends with a poignant account of the author’s boyhood correspondence with the historical novelist Mary Renault, which inspired his ambition to become a writer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Bad Boy of Athens\u003c\/em\u003e, Mendelsohn provokes and dazzles with erudition, emotion and tart wit while his essays dance across eras, cultures and genres. This is a provocative collection which sees today’s master of popular criticism using the ancient past to reach into the very heart of modern culture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Daniel Mendelsohn","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47285268709525,"sku":"9780007545162","price":9.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780007545162.jpg?v=1776992254","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780007545162_the-bad-boy-of-athens-classics-from-the-greeks-to-game-of-thrones","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}