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Richard Jenkyns
- A History of Greece: From the Time of Solon to 403 BC by George Grote, edited by J.M. Mitchell and M.O.B. Caspari
George Grote was one of the most remarkable minds of the early Victorian age. But although he has never been forgotten, other Victorian intellectuals less wise than he, less strong in judgment, more erratic, more colourful and perhaps more imaginative, have enjoyed a fame and a following that he has never quite achieved. This is partly because he sought to be a scholar rather than a sage, partly because his work has not been easily accessible. Routledge’s reissue of an Edwardian abridgment of his 12-volume History of Greece, prefaced with an illuminating new introduction by Paul Cartledge, provides the best chance that there is likely to be of bringing him to a modern readership.
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Richard Jenkyns, Professor of the Classical Tradition at Oxford, is the author of The Victorians and Ancient Greece, and, most recently, of Virgil’s Experience.
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