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Strong As Death Is Love Robert Alter (University of California, Berkeley)

Strong As Death Is Love By Robert Alter (University of California, Berkeley)

Strong As Death Is Love by Robert Alter (University of California, Berkeley)


$15.49
Condition - Very Good
Out of stock

Summary

An award-winning translation brings new immediacy to these beloved books of the Bible. Read them for the first time, again.

Strong As Death Is Love Summary

Strong As Death Is Love: The Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Daniel, A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter (University of California, Berkeley)

These five late biblical books offer readers a range of pleasures not usually associated with the Bible. They are artful, entertaining literary works-innovative, even startling. Women often stand centre stage. The Song of Songs, a celebration of young love, frankly sensuous, with no reference to God, offers some of the most beautiful love poems of the ancient world. The story of Esther's shrewd triumph is a secular entertainment that mixes farce with sly sexual comedy. The character of Ruth embodies the virtues of loyalty, love and charity in a harmonious world. Enigma replaces harmony in Daniel, whose feverish dreams envision the end of time. And the traditions of prophecy are recast in the tale of a fish that swallows Jonah. Alter's translation restores the original power of these popular books.

Strong As Death Is Love Reviews

Encountering these books in this form-as ancient literature, laid out as poetry, with copious footnotes-allows you to be dazzled by their range, from the frank eroticism of the Song of Songs to the bucolic idyll of Esther and the downright weirdness of Daniel. -- New Statesman
In each of the Biblical books in this volume a balance of explanation, translation and commentary is offered. In each of them the reader is made a partner in an adventure of scholarship and clarification which is both rare and exemplary. -- Eavan Boland - The Irish Times
Robert Alter's continuing project of translating the Old Testament is perhaps one of the most important literary/religious endeavours of recent times...Alter adds new levels of richness and poetry to the text, while adding an illuminating commentary to untangle the struggles of time. -- Catholic Herald

About Robert Alter (University of California, Berkeley)

Robert Alter's translation of the Hebrew Bible, the magnificent capstone to a lifetime of distinguished scholarly work, has won the PEN Center Literary Award for Translation. His immense achievements in scholarship ranging from the eighteenth-century European novel to contemporary Hebrew and American literature earned Alter the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Los Angeles Times. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.

Additional information

GOR009015743
9780393352252
0393352250
Strong As Death Is Love: The Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Daniel, A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter (University of California, Berkeley)
Used - Very Good
Paperback
WW Norton & Co
20160219
256
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Strong As Death Is Love