Some Talk of Alexander

A personal journey through Greek history, juxtaposed with remarkable images that vividly depict, trace, and reinforce the art and life of the times.

Do "the classics" still have relevance at the start of the twenty-first century? Or are they just an outdated repository of class vanity, racial prejudice, and pedantic obscurantism, rooted in abstruse texts and concerned almost entirely with the activities of dead white males in strange costumes? In this wise and witty work, Frederic Raphael springs to the defense of a much-maligned but bracingly elitist world.

An erudite, wide-ranging, fluent, and original piece of writing, Some Talk of Alexander leads us from the personal experiences of the author in modern Greece into the rich store of Greek civilization: its art, politics, philosophy, mores, warfare, ethics, personal relationships, government, and literature. 106 illustrations.

Frederic Raphael has written screenplays, novels, short-story collections, essays, and memoirs. He won an Oscar in 1965 for his sparkling screenplay Darling, and he has had great success with the films Far from the Madding Crowd and Two for the Road as well as the television series The Glittering Prizes and After the War.