This first book-length study of English translation as a topic in classical reception engages with the dialogues generated between individual translations and their source-texts, but also with the wide and deep tradition of which they form a part. English Translation and Classical Reception is organised as a mix of surveys and case studies, yet structured to create a continuous discursive thread from Shakespeare to the twentieth century.
As lead editor of the first history of English literary translation, Gillespie has been a major force in recovering the remarkable and extensive history of English writers’ engagements with the classics over the centuries. This book focuses on the implications of this history both for English and classical scholarship. In addition to this, Gillespie unveils a new level of historical rediscovery in his analysis of a range of forgotten, unpublished, and suppressed classical translations by English writers. This important text will mark a change in the way in which the English reception of classical literature is viewed and studied.
