{"product_id":"how-the-classics-made-shakespeare-jonathan-bate-9780691161600","title":"How the Classics Made Shakespeare","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom one of our most eminent and accessible literary critics, a groundbreaking account of how the Greek and Roman classics forged Shakespeare's imagination\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBen Jonson famously accused Shakespeare of having \"small Latin and less Greek.\" But he was exaggerating. Shakespeare was steeped in the classics. Shaped by his grammar school education in Roman literature, history, and rhetoric, he moved to London, a city that modeled itself on ancient Rome. He worked in a theatrical profession that had inherited the conventions and forms of classical drama, and he read deeply in Ovid, Virgil, and Seneca. In a book of extraordinary range, acclaimed literary critic and biographer Jonathan Bate, one of the world's leading authorities on Shakespeare, offers groundbreaking insights into how, perhaps more than any other influence, the classics made Shakespeare the writer he became. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRevealing in new depth the influence of Cicero and Horace on Shakespeare and finding new links between him and classical traditions, ranging from myths and magic to monuments and politics, Bate offers striking new readings of a wide array of the plays and poems. At the heart of the book is an argument that Shakespeare's supreme valuation of the force of imagination was honed by the classical tradition and designed as a defense of poetry and theater in a hostile world of emergent Puritanism. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRounded off with a fascinating account of how Shakespeare became our modern classic and has ended up playing much the same role for us as the Greek and Roman classics did for him, \u003ci\u003eHow the Classics Made Shakespeare \u003c\/i\u003ecombines stylistic brilliance, accessibility, and scholarship, demonstrating why Jonathan Bate is one of our most eminent and readable literary critics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jonathan Bate\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0691161607\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691161600\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/16\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.70w x 1.40d","brand":"Jonathan Bate","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43981103038719,"sku":"9780691161600","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_a2360978-e5fb-4b8e-a022-c79aa7df0e56.jpg?v=1683253671","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/how-the-classics-made-shakespeare-jonathan-bate-9780691161600","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}