"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is one of Shakespeare's most charming and intelligent comedies. Exploring with humour the theme of star-crossed lovers that he deals with tragically in "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare here takes three troubled relationships and has them intersect in the most amusing ways.

The impending nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta set the background for the play, and are certainly the most distant, both from the immediate action, and in terms of romantic possibility. Theirs is a cool, rational relationship, seemingly devoid of passion. The already-married Oberon and Titania, king and queen of fairies, provide another marital backdrop. Both seem to be jealous of the other's chosen distractions, which deprive them of each other's company. Finally, the main action of the play concerns the love affair between Lysander and Hermia. Hermia's father, Egeus, wants his daughter to marry Demetrius, and does not approve of Lysander at all. Helena, Hermia's friend, is smitten with Demetrius, and so, the conflicts begin.

Oberon initiates the action of the play, goading his mischievous aid-de-camp, Puck, to stir up trouble with a love-inducing flower amongst both the human lovers and the fairy queen Titania. Foible and folly ensue when Puck starts into his work. Throw in some common craftsmen from Athens who are trying to put together a simple play for Theseus's wedding, and you have all the ingredients for enchantment.

In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Shakespeare not only delves into the intricacies of human relationships on a romantic level, but also at the social, class, and interpersonal levels. He even critiques/celebrates the habits of his late 16th century audiences to intriguing effect. If you are tired of tragedy or think Shakespeare too distant or foreboding, pick up "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and you will find a solidly funny and endearing read.

If anyone wants to decide whether a given country is modern, he has to start with an examination of what he means by modernity. Faubion examines this question admirably in this challenging but peculiarly beautiful book, but his work is so complex and so insightful that anyone undertaking to review it should probably ... have his head examined.

Faubion is endowed with -- or has acquired -- a splendid vocaulary of great precision that serves him well in all the tenuously nuanced dimensions of the present-day Greek reality he explores here. His syntax is baroquely elaborate, almost theatrical (in a sense of excellent theatre) and some of his longer sentences are not fully comprehensible on the first go. But that is no problem because the reader can always have a second go at any given sentence and in the process learn how real writers with real ideas, like Faubion, go about their business.

This is a hermeneutics of contemporary Athens and, by extension, of modern Greece, which is to say that the author regards meaning as the mediator between experience and consciousness and therefore undertakes a search for analogues adequate to trace a movement from unmediated experience to the historical consciousness in the several realms of meaning into which it (hopefully) differentiates.

Superimposing on this hermeneutics a specifically literary turn, he adopts from Harold Bloom -- and uses as an analytic tool -- a figure called ... metalepsis, which may be the poetic face of what we tyro Hegelians call sublation.

When the author mentions his field experience among highly educated cosmopolites in Kolonaki, one thinks back with compassion on linguist an anthropologist friends suffering through field work in the wilds of West Africa or Borneo (life really isn't fair, is it?).

The book offers not only an exploration of the historical consciousness of some few Greeks, but also tests social and cultural theory (Weber, Schiller, Foucault) and critiques some widely held positions in the fields of sociology and anthropology. To use a well worn scheme, Faubion clearly favors considerations of strategy, process and practice over rule, structure and theory. He outlines the historically constructivist (as distinct from classicist or essentialist) Greek self-understanding as it comes forth from his associates who function as field informants. On this basis he discusses anecdotally the sunsettled relations between such aspects of modern life as economics and politics, tradition and modernity, among many others.

I would venture to say that most hermeneuts of the Ricoeur school may experience difficulty with the author's position on the relation between writers and the texts they produce, but even if he rejects textual autonomy he still offers valuable insights on some modern Greek writers and their position in society. His treatment of the whole question of sexual liberation and identity is also excellent.

Castriota's book is a must for anyone interested in early Greek art.

This volume represents an excellent up-to-date compilation of the current knowledge base regarding the endophytic fungi of the genus Neotyphodium (formerly Acremonium) and their effects on their grass hosts, invertebrate and vertebrate herbivores, and the plant communities in which they interact. Current timely research findings in many areas regarding the tall fescue endophyte and its impacts on animal husbandry and production are clearly and precisely explained. Global perspectives on the tall fescue endophyte concerns are also examined. Given the complex and constantly-changing dynamics of this research arena, this volume provides up-to-date important information regarding how the endophyte and its alkaloids manifest their influence on a variety of laboratory animals and livestock. It is an excellent reference for those currently involved in tall fescue endophyte research and also for those looking for a comprehensive first "look".

It is the most famous building in Western history. Yet, in _The Parthenon_ (Harvard University Press), Mary Beard reminds us that there are great voids of mystery about it, that we don't know what large portions of it looked like when it was built, and that much of what we see when we look at the ruin now is a controversial restoration. Beard's serious, academic, but witty monograph makes us look at the ruin again, and realize the role it has played in imagination and in objective Western history. Not only is the Parthenon an amazing and influential building, but it has a few thousand years of history and controversy (starting from before it was built). Beard gives us all the details in a lively account.

Beard, a classicist, reminds us that we have to do a lot of guesswork about the Athenian government of the fifth century BCE, even though it looms large in our imagined history of democracy. There were rumors of financial and sexual scandal connected to the project, which was attacked as a colossal waste of money and "dressing up Athens like a whore." The temple was not for worship such as occurs in our churches and mosques (both of which, in time, the Parthenon became). It was a strongbox, a place to keep not only the valuable statue secure, but also plenty of other treasures. The friezes were attacked by Christians when it was turned into a church, and had milder defacement from the Turks when it afterward became a mosque. The temple was more or less intact, though, until 1687, when Christians blew up the gunpowder the Turks were storing there. The ruin we see now on the Acropolis is not the ruin that was left. We now see columns running between the pedimented ends of the building, but this is a reconstruction from the 1920s. To put it mildly, this restoration did not meet the current standards for historic preservation, although it was heartily approved at the time. It is not an accurate reconstruction but "a plausible fiction" made of materials that were to hand, and it inexcusably injured the ancient blocks. Current reconstruction will position them as well as current research methods can direct.

Of course the history of the Lord Elgin and his theft or rescue of the sculptures is recounted here in very fair detail. What happened to them in the twentieth century, however, shows how large a role they play in the world's affections and interest. The rich art dealer Joseph Duveen provided the new accommodation for the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. He somehow had access to the sculptures being prepared for their new accommodation, and in 1938, the director of the museum was horrified to find that copper tools and carborundum were being used to clean the figures at Duveen's direction. Beard reports that "... heads did, discretely, roll, and 'remedial measures' (the phrase alone makes you shudder) were taken on the marbles." There was a flurry of press criticism at the time, but a scholar turned the story up only a few years ago, resulting in an angry and emotional international conference to try to get to the bottom of the events of 1938. Beard says this is only the most recent climax of "the longest-running cultural controversy in the world," the fate of the Elgin Marbles. The Parthenon may be only a ruin, but it plays a role in the world's cares beyond just being a beautiful spot for sightseers. Beard's biography of the building, erudite and vigorous, shows just why the Parthenon looms important among humanity's monuments.

The Parthenon and Its Impact in Modern Times is quite simply a masterpiece. Anyone interested in the history, architecture, aesthetics, and impact of this monument will find this a truly excellent book. The text and the accompanying pictures/photographs are indeed something to treasure. The book has offered me many hours of sheer intellectual pleasure. A must!

The People, the Sovereigns is an excellent read for anyone seeking to understand the founding precepts of our government straight from the words of one of our Founding Fathers. The book provides a comparison between ancient civilizations (Athens, Lacedemon and Carthage) and our governmental structure. This a unique piece of writing, written by Monroe after his presidency and never finished - cut short by his death. An excellent work from a seasoned lawmaker, to say the least.

The Power of Money (I suspect the title is the fault of the editor or publisher) deals with the Athenian Coinage Decree. When Athens controlled much of the greek world it promulgated a law restricting coinage in silver, requiring foreign coin to be converted to the Athenian standard. The decree survives in fragments of carvings and there is a reference to it in a play by Aristophanes. Figueira analyzes whether we can know when the law was in effect, how widely and if it was enforced. The evidence is scientific, that is, what inferences are drawn are based on logical study of evidence. There are the textual variants of the law, where they are found, when they may be dated. There are coin hoards which show whether there is a hiatus in non-Athenian silver coinage, etc. Figueira is able to touch on peripheral subjects such as the problem of correlating a silver/electrum exchange ratio.I recommend this book to students of history, numismatists, and anyone who wants to know how history is 'done.' The narratives of our commonly-accepted history are not the constructs of power or class.They are based on scraps of evidence that may seem dry and boring but which yield treasures when studied calmly and logically. This book is an antidote to the radical aporia and solipsism induced by postmoderism and its works.

One of the most important sociocultural studies of (not only) New Comedy in recent years. Dr Omitowoju makes a valuable contribution towards the definite deconstruction of Murray's binary categorisation of Comedy as dealing with "res publica" (Old Comedy) and "res privata" (New Comedy). Omitowoju, on the lines of other contenporary (mostly female) scholars demonstrates how the "private" material Menander deals with, mainly questions of sexual relations and marriage, was institutionalised as a civic concern and highly politicised, as it touched sensitive issues like citizenship, inheritance, enfranchisement and the legitimate reproduction of the household. The book, intended for both the specialist and the general reader, is a must-read for everybody interested in contextualising Menander's New Comedy or in following the vexed history of such a sadly all-too-topical issue as rape.