Christopher Stray – författare

The first book to give a general account of the transformation of classics in English schools and universities from being the amateur knowledge of the Victorian gentleman to that of the professional scholar, from an elite social marker to a marginalized academic subject. The challenges to the authority of classics in 19th-century England are analysed, as is the wide range of ideological responses by its practitioners. The impact of university reform on the content and organization of classical knowledge is described in detail, with special reference to Cambridge. Chapters are devoted to the effects of state intervention, social snobbery and democracy on the provision of classics in schools, and the dissensions within the bodies set up to defend it. The narrative is carried through to the abolition of Compulsory Latin in 1960 and the absence of classics from the National Curriculum in 1988.

Rediscovering E. R. Dodds offers the first comprehensive assessment of a remarkable classical scholar, who was also a poet with extensive links to twentieth-century English and Irish literary culture, the friend of Auden and MacNeice. Dodds was born in Northern Ireland, but made his name as Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford from 1936 to 1960, succeeding Gilbert Murray. Before this he taught at Reading and Birmingham, was active in the Association of University Teachers, or AUT (of which he became president), and brought an outsider's perspective to the comfortable and introspective world of Oxford. His famous book The Greeks and the Irrational (1951) remains one of the most distinguished and visionary works of scholarship of its time, though much less well-known is his long and influential involvement with psychic research and his work for the reconstruction of German education after the Second World War. The contributions to this volume seek to shed light on these less explored areas of Dodds' life and his significance as perhaps the last classicist to play a significant role in British literary culture, as well as examining his work across different areas of scholarship, notably Greek tragedy. A group of memoirs - one by his pupil and former literary executor, Donald Russell, and three by younger friends who knew, visited, and looked after Dodds in his last years - complement this portrait of the influential scholar and poet, offering a glimpse of the man behind the legacy.

The Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell and Scott is one of the most famous dictionaries in the world, and for the past century-and-a-half has been a constant and indispensable presence in teaching, learning, and research on ancient Greek throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. Despite continuous modification and updating, it is still recognizably a Victorian creation; at the same time, however, it carries undiminished authority both for its account of the Greek language and for its system of organizing and presenting linguistic data. The present volume brings together essays by twenty-two scholars on all aspects of the history, constitution, and problematics of this extraordinary work, enabling the reader both to understand its complex history and to appreciate it as a monument to the challenges and pitfalls of classical scholarship. The contributors have combined a variety of approaches and methodologies - historical, philological, theoretical - in order to situate the book within the various disciplines to which it is relevant, from semantics, lexicography, and historical linguistics, to literary theory, Victorian studies, and the history of the book. Paying tribute to the Lexicon's enormous effect on the evolving theory and practice of lexicography, it also includes a section looking forward to new developments in dictionary-making in the digital age, bringing comprehensively up to date the question of what the future holds for this fascinating and perplexing monument to the challenges of understanding an ancient language.

This is the first comprehensive account of the life and work of the distinguished scholar and public figure Gilbert Murray (1866-1957). Sixteen contributors survey his childhood, his work in the theatre and in international relations, his Greek scholarship and contributions on religion and philosophy, his friendships (including those with Bertrand Russell and A. E. Housman), his long commitment to the Home University Library, his radio work, and his involvement with psychic research. The book opens with memoirs by two of his grandchildren. Two biographies of Murray were published in the 1980s, but the range of his activities makes it impossible for a single person to encompass them all adequately. This book, published 50 years after his death, aims to proved a comprehensive reassessment of a remarkable man.

This is the first comprehensive account of the life and work of the distinguished scholar and public figure Gilbert Murray (1866-1957). Sixteen contributors survey his childhood, his work in the theatre and in international relations, his Greek scholarship and contributions on religion and philosophy, his friendships (including those with Bertrand Russell and A. E. Housman), his long commitment to the Home University Library, his radio work, and his involvement with psychic research. The book opens with memoirs by two of his grandchildren. Two biographies of Murray were published in the 1980s, but the range of his activities makes it impossible for a single person to encompass them all adequately. This book, published 50 years after his death, aims to proved a comprehensive reassessment of a remarkable man.

This unique volume summarizes and reflects the work of a leading voice in the history of Classics in Britain, bringing together both previously published articles, now newly revised, and never before published work. Topics range from the school classroom to the politics of universities, and from the social uses of classical knowledge to the publishing of textbooks: although the volume as a whole maintains a particular focus on the role of books and journals in the reception of Classics, the chapters also draw on anecdotal and documentary sources to offer a vivid exploration of the more obscure corners of the world of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars, teachers, and pupils. The book is divided into three parts, the first of which illustrates the utility of comparative analysis of institutions, focusing on Oxford and Cambridge in particular; the second looks at the transformative role of printing and publishing, and at the history of the Hellenic Society (1879) and the Classical Association (1903), in relation to the changing place of Classics in British society. The third focuses on pedagogy, examining textbooks and classroom activity and stressing the dialectical nature of reception, as evidenced by the resistance of pupils to their teachers' lessons. Engaging and insightful in isolation, together they offer an expansive and unparalleled overview of the history and sociology of classical education and scholarship between 1800 and 2000.

This rich collection of essays by an international group of scholars explores commentaries in many different languages on ancient Latin and Greek texts. The commentaries discussed range from the ancient world to the twentieth century. Together, the chapters contribute to the dialogue between two vibrant and developing fields of study: the history of scholarship and the history of the book. The volume pays particular attention to individual commentaries, national traditions of commentary, the part played by commentaries in the reception of classical texts, and the role of printing and publishing. The material form of commentaries is also considered-including how they are advertised and their accompanying illustrations-as well as their role in education. Both academic texts and books written for schools are surveyed.

This is the first book to be devoted to its subject, offering a wide-ranging introduction to dictionaries of Latin and Greek from the ancient world to the present. As well as the well-known dictionaries such as Liddell and Scott and the 'Oxford Latin Dictionary', less well-known genres are considered, such as etymological dictionaries, lexica of single authors and the 'Gradus ad Parnassum'. Case studies of the treatment of individual words are included, but the nature of lexica as cultural enterprises is also considered, as are the human stories of their makers; the enduring tensions between scholarly accuracy and the practicalities of publishing; and the way such books are used by their readers.

College-university relationships, the role of examinations, the politics of curriculum: papers amplify the picture of developments in Cambridge during the century.It was in the 19th and early 20th centuries that Cambridge, characterised in the previous century as a place of indolence and complacency, underwent the changes which produced the institutional structures which persist today. Foremost among them was the rise of mathematics as the dominant subject within the university, with the introduction of the Classical Tripos in 1824, and Moral and Natural Sciences Triposes in 1851. Responding to this, Trinity was notable in preparing its students for honours examinations, which came to seem rather like athletics competitions, by working them hard at college examinations. The admission of women and dissenters in the 1860s and 1870s was a majorchange ushered in by the Royal Commission of 1850, which finally brought the colleges out of the middle ages and strengthened the position of the university, at the same time laying the foundations of the new system of lectures and supervisions. Contributors: JUNE BARROW-GREEN, MARY BEARD, JOHN R. GIBBINS, PAULA GOULD, ELISABETH LEEDHAM-GREEN, DAVID McKITTERICK, JONATHAN SMITH, GILLIAN SUTHERLAND, CHRISTOPHER STRAY, ANDREW WARWICK, JOHN WILKES.

Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874) was the favourite grandson of John Jacob Astor (the first American multi-millionaire, and the Astor of the Waldorf-Astoria). After gaining a degree at Yale, Bristed entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840, graduating in 1845. An American in Victorian Cambridge is a richly detailed account of student life in the Cambridge of the 1840s. The rationale for the book, which is as appealing today as it was then, is that this is pre-eminently a book about an American student at an English university. The book belongs to a fascinating nineteenth-century trans-Atlantic publishing genre: travel accounts designed to describe British culture to Americans and vice-versa.In this new edition, some substantial additions have been made: the Foreword and Introduction both help to contextualise the work, and point to its significance as an important historical source and as a fascinating memoir of life in Victorian Cambridge; annotation helps to identify the individuals who appear in Bristed’s text; and an index allows full use to be made of the text for the first time.

Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874) was the favourite grandson of John Jacob Astor (the first American multi-millionaire, and the Astor of the Waldorf-Astoria). After gaining a degree at Yale, Bristed entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840, graduating in 1845. An American in Victorian Cambridge is a richly detailed account of student life in the Cambridge of the 1840s. The rationale for the book, which is as appealing today as it was then, is that this is pre-eminently a book about an American student at an English university. The book belongs to a fascinating nineteenth-century trans-Atlantic publishing genre: travel accounts designed to describe British culture to Americans and vice-versa.In this new edition, some substantial additions have been made: the Foreword and Introduction both help to contextualise the work, and point to its significance as an important historical source and as a fascinating memoir of life in Victorian Cambridge; annotation helps to identify the individuals who appear in Bristed’s text; and an index allows full use to be made of the text for the first time.

Marginal Comment, which attracted keen and widespread interest on its original publication in 1994, is the remarkable memoir of one of the most distinguished classical scholars of the modern era. Its author, Sir Kenneth Dover, whose academic publications included the pathbreaking book Greek Homosexuality (1978, reissued by Bloomsbury in 2016), conceived of it as an ‘experimental’ autobiography – ruthlessly candid in retracing the full range of the author’s experiences, both private and public, and unflinching in its attempt to analyse the entanglements between the life of the mind and the life of the body.Dover’s distinguished career involved not only an influential series of writings about the ancient Greeks but also a number of prominent positions of leadership, including the presidencies of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the British Academy. It was in those positions that he became involved in several high-profile controversies, including the blocking of an honorary degree for Margaret Thatcher from Oxford University, and a bitter debate in the British Academy over the fellowship of Anthony Blunt after his exposure as a former Soviet spy. This edition of Marginal Comment is much more than a reissue: it includes an introduction which frames the book in relation to its author’s life and work, as well as annotations based in part on materials originally excluded by Dover but left in his personal papers on this death. Now newly available, the memoir provides not only the self-portrait of an exceptional individual but a rich case-study in the intersections between an intellectual life and its social contexts.

Marginal Comment, which attracted keen and widespread interest on its original publication in 1994, is the remarkable memoir of one of the most distinguished classical scholars of the modern era. Its author, Sir Kenneth Dover, whose academic publications included the pathbreaking book Greek Homosexuality (1978, reissued by Bloomsbury in 2016), conceived of it as an ‘experimental’ autobiography – ruthlessly candid in retracing the full range of the author’s experiences, both private and public, and unflinching in its attempt to analyse the entanglements between the life of the mind and the life of the body.Dover’s distinguished career involved not only an influential series of writings about the ancient Greeks but also a number of prominent positions of leadership, including the presidencies of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the British Academy. It was in those positions that he became involved in several high-profile controversies, including the blocking of an honorary degree for Margaret Thatcher from Oxford University, and a bitter debate in the British Academy over the fellowship of Anthony Blunt after his exposure as a former Soviet spy. This edition of Marginal Comment is much more than a reissue: it includes an introduction which frames the book in relation to its author’s life and work, as well as annotations based in part on materials originally excluded by Dover but left in his personal papers on this death. Now newly available, the memoir provides not only the self-portrait of an exceptional individual but a rich case-study in the intersections between an intellectual life and its social contexts.

The essays collected in this volume were written to mark the centenary of the birth of Sir Kenneth Dover, one of the twentieth century’s most influential classical scholars. Between them, they explore the two major sides of his career: his groundbreaking scholarship on Greek language, literature and history, and the more public-facing roles he assumed in universities and at the British Academy which brought him into the national spotlight, not without some notoriety, in his later years.The contributors consider the various facets of Dover's life and work from a range of perspectives which reflect the burgeoning field of the history of scholarship. Some contributors were students and colleagues of Dover’s at different stages of his career, while others are themselves leading experts in areas of Classics to which he devoted his energies. Chapters on his academic publications and on the controversies he faced in the public realm are not bland celebrations of his legacy but offer critical assessments of his motivations and achievements, cumulatively demonstrating that there is much to be learned not just about Dover himself but also about the fields he helped to shape.

The essays collected in this volume were written to mark the centenary of the birth of Sir Kenneth Dover, one of the twentieth century’s most influential classical scholars. Between them, they explore the two major sides of his career: his groundbreaking scholarship on Greek language, literature and history, and the more public-facing roles he assumed in universities and at the British Academy which brought him into the national spotlight, not without some notoriety, in his later years.The contributors consider the various facets of Dover's life and work from a range of perspectives which reflect the burgeoning field of the history of scholarship. Some contributors were students and colleagues of Dover’s at different stages of his career, while others are themselves leading experts in areas of Classics to which he devoted his energies. Chapters on his academic publications and on the controversies he faced in the public realm are not bland celebrations of his legacy but offer critical assessments of his motivations and achievements, cumulatively demonstrating that there is much to be learned not just about Dover himself but also about the fields he helped to shape.

Examining the profusion of ways in which the arts, culture, and thought of Greece and Rome have been transmitted, interpreted, adapted and used, A Companion to Classical Receptions explores the impact of this phenomenon on both ancient and later societies. Provides a comprehensive introduction and overview of classical reception - the interpretation of classical art, culture, and thought in later centuries, and the fastest growing area in classicsBrings together 34 essays by an international group of contributors focused on ancient and modern reception concepts and practicesCombines close readings of key receptions with wider contextualization and discussionExplores the impact of Greek and Roman culture worldwide, including crucial new areas in Arabic literature, South African drama, the history of photography, and contemporary ethics

A.E. Housman (1859-1936) was a man of many apparent contradictions, most of which remain unresolved 150 years after his birth. At once a deeply emotive lyric poet and a precise and dedicated classical scholar, he achieved fame in both of these diverse disciplines. Although his poetic legacy has received much scholarly analysis, and yet more attention has been devoted to reconstructing his private life, no previous work has focused on Housman the classical scholar; yet it is upon scholarship that Housman most wished to leave his mark. This timely collection of papers by leading scholars reassesses the breadth and significance of Housman's contribution to classical scholarship in both his published and unpublished writings, and discusses how his mantle has been passed on to later generations of classicists.

In the first collection to be devoted to this subject, a distinguished cast of contributors explores expurgation in both Greek and Latin authors in ancient and modern times. The major focus is on the period from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, with chapters ranging from early Greek lyric and Aristophanes through Lucretius, Horace, Martial and Catullus to the expurgation of schoolboy texts, the Loeb Classical Library and the Penguin Classics. The contributors draw on evidence from the papers of editors, and on material in publishing archives. The introduction discusses both the different types of expurgation, and how it differs from related phenomena such as censorship.

The essays in this informative book explore the impact of British classics--the study of Greco-Roman antiquity, with an emphasis on the classical Latin and Greek languages--beyond the borders of England itself, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: inside the academy as specialized scholarship and teaching, outside the academy as a mode of social and cultural formation. Not only did British classics permeate England; they brought English values to Scotland, Wales, and America as well. Far into the twentieth century, to learn classics ""the Oxbridge way"" was to cloak oneself in the mantle of a gentleman--even when the ""gentleman"" was a woman.

John Wright's Alma Mater was the first book-length student memoir to be published in Britain. Yet this trailblazing and revealing work has never been reprinted since its appearance in 1827. Full of fascinating detail about college life, it discusses teaching, examinations and student socialising, including sport, hunting and recourse to prostitutes. A remarkable story of success and failure, it often resembles a picaresque novel: after an eventful undergraduate career, Wright became a hack writer and tutor in London. His marriage failed, his wife left him, his children went to the workhouse, and ultimately he was transported for theft to Tasmania, where he died a premature death.This autobiographical memoir has often been referred to or quoted by studies of Cambridge University and the history of mathematics, but the life of its author has never been satisfactorily explored. This new edition makes an important source and a vivid historical document available for the first time. It includes an in-depth exploration of university and college archives, while Wright’s life is also investigated through outside sources, such as the records of the Royal Literary Fund and those of court, prison and transportation authorities.Wright's account, along with the commentary and notes presented here, offers extraordinary reading for anyone interested in the history of the University of Cambridge, the teaching of mathematics in the nineteenth century and the life of Grub Street, the London literary underworld in the 1820s and 1830s. The more general reader will also be surprised and entertained by this topsy-turvy tale recounted with candour and verve.

In the first collection to be devoted to this subject, a distinguished cast of contributors explores expurgation in both Greek and Latin authors in ancient and modern times. The major focus is on the period from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, with chapters ranging from early Greek lyric and Aristophanes through Lucretius, Horace, Martial and Catullus to the expurgation of schoolboy texts, the Loeb Classical Library and the Penguin Classics. The contributors draw on evidence from the papers of editors, and on material in publishing archives. The introduction discusses both the different types of expurgation, and how it differs from related phenomena such as censorship.