From Gibbon to Auden: Essays on the Classical Tradition (review)
Rent from DeepDyve- From Gibbon to Auden: Essays on the Classical Tradition
Not all modern classicists are as civilized as Glen Bowersock, whose expertise and understanding go far beyond whatever a quarter century at the Princeton Institute may have bestowed on him. These reprinted essays, covering some twenty years, are a serious contribution to the history of classical scholarship, looking [End Page 557] at its role in the work of poets (Cavafy to Auden, nicely including the latter's essay on the fall of Rome) and the attitudes of the better scholars (Gibbon to Burckhardt to Momigliano). In passing, these essays consider the role of gesture in speech and the contribution (on a Pompeian scale) of excavations to the history of taste; there are extended remarks on classicism in libretti and in the art of Edward Lear. The effect of reading these essays as a group might inspire some classicists to consider just how important what we do might be for the survival of civilized society and to lift their eyes from the straightness of whatever furrow they are ploughing.
Of course, not all "collected essays," kleine Schriften, are as worthwhile as these. Libraries often shun them, especially those generated by their authors for self-esteem. It makes one reflect on the wisdom of rereading what one wrote long ago—"did I really think that?" "that's a nice turn of phrase," "my god, how much I've forgotten." Bowersock need have no such qualms about this collection, and neither classicists nor their libraries should ignore it.
Sir John Boardman is Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology Emeritus at Oxford University and a fellow of the British Academy. He is the editor of the Oxford History of Classical Art and the author of The History of Greek Vases and The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity. He has received the Onassis Prize for Humanities and the Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies.
