Electra
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
DumbWise reinvent the murderous Greek myth of power and prophecy as a lyrical modern epic with a live punk-rock score.
A Queen masterminds the murder of her husband and takes the throne with her new lover. Her daughter, Electra, grows up in the grip of a cruel regime, swearing revenge. Her son Orestes, exiled as a boy and raised in the arms of the rebels, waits to embark on a holy mission to reclaim his country.
Two decades later a twist of fate brings brother and sister together; united by hate but divided by faith. With the country on the brink of civil war, the most powerful family in the Kingdom are torn apart from the inside as their dark past once again becomes the present.
The revolution will be televised, but are The Gods watching?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Every era needs the classics on its own terms, so Sophocles' Electra, translated by Anne Carson (The Beauty of the Husband; Forecasts, Dec. 18, 2000), should prove very popular among newcomers and seasoned readers of the sublime dramatist's brutal drama, as well as among Carson's many fans. While Carson renders the book in her signature free verse, her major innovation is the phonetic preservation of Electra's "far from formulaic" screams: "OIMOI," "O TALAINA" and "PHEU PHEU" among them. As Carson writes in her excellent translator's preface, they are not stock ejaculations like "Alas!" or "Woe is me!," but "bones of sound" emitted by the daughter who finds herself cheering her mother's execution. Though Oxford's stock existentialist cover looks like something from the height of '50s abstract angst and the book's paper is pulpy, expect strong sales. ( Apr.)
