Sophocles’ Antigone

Citation

James, S. (2002), "Sophocles’ Antigone", Library Review, Vol. 51 No. 7, pp. 385-386. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.2002.51.7.385.11

The book can be produced in so many diverse subjects, forms and illustrations that we should cease to wonder at its limitless possibilities. So, perhaps there is no cause for surprise that a book of Indian provenance (author, illustrator and printer) retelling a story of classical Greek tragedy and using illustrations based on ancient Greek red figure vases should be published by a leading US art museum and foundation. The authors re‐tell the story of Antigone from Sophocles’ drama in simple modern English prose so that a modern audience, young or old, can appreciate the tragedy of the narrative.

Much more than that, it does so in a large format volume on thick yellow paper with strong brown, black and white illustrations based on Greek vase paintings. And it works: a handsome and interesting volume keeps Sophocles’ version of the story alive in terms a modern audience can understand. The Getty Museum comes in because it has in its collections Greek red‐figure vases which should themselves come even more alive for those who will have read this book. All in all, a welcome surprise: good books should do that.