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SALE, W., Existentialism and Euripides. Sickness, Tragedy and Divinity in the Medea, the Hippolytus and the Bacchae. Aureal Publications, Berwick, 1977. III,142p. Paperback. Upper corner slightly bumped through and through. signature on free endpaper. Very few pen annotations. Else fine. ‘This study, an effort to look at three plays of Euripides in terms of six fundamental concepts of existential psychoanalysis, is presented as a work of ‘literary criticism and classical scholarship.’ After a brief exposition in the first chapter of the basic ideas of existential analysis to be used in the study, the succeeding chapters are devoted to some of the characters in the three plays with the understanding that since the tenets of psychoanalytic theory ‘have proved useful in understanding real people; should we not at least look at what it can tell us about the not-quitte real?’(…) Sale argues his position clearly and with attention to the passages he selects. Such passages are cited in translation, which itself is, of necessity, an initial interpretation. When Greek is cited, it is unhappily (…) in a transliterated form; more disconcerting are the inaccuracies in references (…). If one has reservations about the psychoanalytic interpretation of literature it would be because, like the allegorical interpretation of Scripture, it seems to serve the exegete more than it serves the written work. In the present instance such reservations are strengthened when what was Sale’s original intention (…) still looms large in the work, e.g. an analysis of the neurotic characters in the three plays. (…) Sale presents his arguments in detail, with care, and with commendable objectivity and impartiality. It is in the argument which must proceed by exegesis that the queries arise (…) Throughout this study there are a number of helpful and interesting insights of individual characters, but for me the larger and legitimate problem is always on the horizon: what is the play about? If the answer is that the play is about the psychologically sick, then apart from other questions which can be asked, where is the tragedy? Without question Sale’s study will be read differently by different people.’ (W.M.A. GRIMALDI in The Classical World, 1978, pp.118-119). € 50.00 (Antiquarian) ISBN: 9780725601928