Broken Laughter Select Fragments of Greek Comedy [Hardcover]

A collection of over 200 of the most interesting and important fragments of Greek comedy, accompanied by a commentary; an extensive introduction discussing the history of comic genre; a series of appendixes on the individual poets, the inscriptional evidence, and the like; and a complete translation of the fragments. Individual sections illustrate the earliest Greek comedy from Syracuse; the characteristic features of Athenian `Old', `Middle', and `New Comedy'; the comic presentation of politicians, philosophers, and women; the comic reception of other poetry; and many aspects of daily life, including dining and symposia.

Of the thousands of comedies composed in ancient Greece, barely a dozen survive intact. But snippets of hundreds of others are quoted by later authors or are preserved on scraps of papyrus. Olson, an authority on classical comedy, here makes more than 200 of the most interesting of these accessible to nonspecialists. Olson has cleverly arranged the material both by genre and topic. This beautifully produced book is a unique and indispensable resource for all students of classical Greek literature. Essential. --Choice

S. Douglas Olson is Distinguished McKnight Professor at the University of Minnesota.