Rating: 
Summary: Revolting and insulting.
Review: "Lysistrata" is truly a revolting play that pokes fun at women. They say Aristophanes thought women to be more than toys for their men, but I see the opposite. I think Aristophanes made a satire out of women and the only thing they are good at: sex and reproducing male babies. This is no compliment. To think that the only way women can change their husband's minds would be by withholding intercourse. This is preposterous! I found this play derogatory with ill humor. I do not recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Revolting and insulting.
Review: "Lysistrata" is truly a revolting play that pokes fun at women. They say Aristophanes thought women to be more than toys for their men, but I see the opposite. I think Aristophanes made a satire out of women and the only thing they are good at: sex and reproducing male babies. This is no compliment. To think that the only way women can change their husband's minds would be by withholding intercourse. This is preposterous! I found this play derogatory with ill humor. I do not recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Make love, not war!
Review: "Lysistrata," the play by Aristophanes, has been published in an anonymous translation as part of the Dover Thrift Editions series. The opening commentary on the text notes that this play dates back to 411 BCE. Aristophanes tells the story of his title character, an Athenian woman who, weary of war, conceives a bold plan: she enlists the women of Greece to refuse to have sex with their men until the men make peace.The plot of this play is thus quite simple, but it is marvelously handled by the author. The play is a rich and effective mix of slapstick antics, bawdy wordplay, and biting sociopolitical commentary. At the center of this enjoyable play is the commanding figure of Lysistrata. Articulate and resolute, she is truly one of the great characters of world drama; she's a woman with a bold vision. Although it is a funny comedy, "Lysistrata" does deal with some serious issues that remain relevant after all these centuries. Recommended as a companion text: "Necessary Targets," a play by Eve Ensler. This non-comedic drama also deals with the issue of women in a country at war.
Rating:
Summary: Strangely Appropriate...
Review: ". . .Here's how it works:
We'll paint, powder, and pluck ourselves to the last
detail, and stay inside, wearing those filmy
tunics that set off everything we have-
and then
slink up to the men. They'll snap to attention, go
absolutely mad to love us-
but we won't let them. We'll abstain.
-I imagine they'll conclude a treaty rather quickly" I picked this up when I saw that many peace groups were putting it on as sort of an answer to the warlike nature of our times. Apparently, it's a timeless notion- The women of the city were tired with wars, so they decided to collectively cut their husbands off. Of course, this leads to man funny incedents, as neither men or women find it easy to deal with this. I wonder what everyone is suggesting today? The Great American Poke Out? This is a wonderful, short play, and the translation preserves all of the puns and metaphors that color this comedy with innuendo. In a warlike world, it's fun to be able to sit back and enjoy a llittle comic fantasy. And at the price, you're paying less than the average movie: for something far better, in my humble opinion. Get this book!
Rating: 
Summary: A Really Bad Translation?
Review: I find that I probably can't criticize Aristophanes for his comedy
as it has lasted over a thousand years, but I can say that it must lose something in this translation. I see these other reviews and
wonder if they are talking about the same play that I read?
This is worse written than a "King of Queens" sit com...
I'd walk out in the first act when the Spartan woman begins to do a dumb blond bit with bad grammar.
It is so bad a Stiller ( father or son) would turn down the script! Save you money and time and find another version....
Rating: 
Summary: If only women would rule the world...
Review: I took a class from Parker over ten years ago during my dark days at the University of Texas at Austin. He taught a course in the Classics department called "Parageography," which was about the geography of imaginary lands. I think it was an excuse for him to really get into the literature that he loved. It was a fun class, made all the more so because Parker allowed me to do the class project, wherein we created our own imaginary land, in hypertext (this was, obviously before the WWW, and hypertext had not gotten much play--I can't even remember the program I used on the Mac to create it). Parker's claim to fame as a scholar of classics, however, was his modern translations of Aristophanes, including this famous satire on how women could stop war by withholding sex. The translation is good, but still somewhat problematic for today's audiences--many of the assumptions of the story are based on the Greek and Trojan cultures, so a modern reader must check the notes every once and awhile to get the full nuance of the poetry. On the other hand, Parker's goal was to not censor the ribaldry, and so there's plenty here for an audience to realize that, even in 2,000+ years, some things really never change.
Rating: 
Summary: In defense of the mass market paperback
Review: I wholeheartedly disagree with the review of LYSISTRATA (Douglass Parker translation) as left by Mr. Russell A. Potter. As a theatre practicioner (a stage director), I have read and studied a number of versions/translations of this work. By far, Mr. Parker's translation is the funniest, the most accessible, and the most entertaining. As for the use of what Mr. Potter refers to as "poor white trash" dialects, this technique (convention) is not exclusive to Mr. Parker's translation. Many of the translations that I've read present the Spartans as perhaps extremely southern or even "hillbilly"-like, as does Mr. Parker's translation. It seems unfair to refer to the dialect as "poor white trash." That statement appears to reflect more of the "prejudice" that Mr. Potter refers to than does the text itself. The use of the dialect is purposeful. It is one of the things that helps make the work more accessible to modern audiences. The war in the play is between Athens and Sparta - the north and south of Greece, much like our US Civil War. There is much logic in presenting the Spartans as southern, albeit in a distorted fashion; after all, this play is a burlesque. It is not meant to be taken literally. I will concede that the dialect does make the Spartan characters seem much less cultured and sophisticated than the Athenian characters, but that too is an accurate portrayal of how the Athenians at the time of the writing viewed the Spartans (mostly brawn, little brains); after all, Aristophanes was an Athenian. The Spartans were not seen in their society as being very culturally evolved as compared to the Athenians (much in the same way that a New Yorker might view a "hillbilly" as being less sophisticated). A prejudice? Perhaps. But more importantly, it is an accurate portrayal of societal perceptions. Mr. Parker presents this societal view effectively. The Spartan women are every bit as strong and wise as the Athenian women; the Spartan men are no more buffoonish than the Athenian men. Overall, the translation works very well. Its dialogue is the least stagey and contrived of the various translations I've read. It is not a "literal" word-for-word translation (as Mr. Parker himself admits), but it fully captures the essence of the original work and puts it in a perspective that allows the play to make greater sense to the modern audience. Rather than avoiding this translation "at all costs," the reader might do well to embrace it as a witty, clever, and in its own way very sophisticated translation of the ancient Greek classic.
Rating:
Summary: Enormously enjoyable play! Should be a movie....
Review: Lysistrata is perhaps my favorite of the Greek plays-it's never pompous or overbearing, and it never overwhelms itself with flowery prose. In addition, it's one of the few Greek plays I've read that portrays women as genuine human beings rather than murderers, decorations, or idiots. They're smart, sexy, and socially aware, especially in a time when they were very seriously repressed. Lysistrata is an intelligent Athenian woman who is sick and tired of the Greek city-states warring against each other. She calls all the women she can round up and comes up with a strategy to end the wars: Keep away from their husbands' beds, and the men will make peace with other cities to make peace with their wives. After a great deal of whining, the women agree to deprive their husbands of sex until peace is achieved. But that's only the beginning of what Lysistrata has planned... Too many feminist tales end up being heavy-handed-though women are on the side of peace and right in this, it doesn't bang you over the head. The men are human as well. The comedy is sly and witty (though full of mild sex talk--nothing too raunchy) and the scene where one young woman unmercifully teases her love-hungry husband will have you rolling. I can see someone making this into a movie-in modern or ancient settings, the dialogue can still be deciphered without a translation program *wink*. It's a story about the power that women can wield and the lengths that they can go to. Read, laugh, guffaw! You won't regret it!
Rating:
Summary: English class isn't so boring after all
Review: Sex, war, peace, the ingredients to a great play. Lysistrata is about women who are tired of losing their sons in battle. The women band together to bring peace by forming a pact, they refuse sexual intercourse with their husbands unless the war is brought to an end. However, that is only the beginning of the bag of tricks she has up her sleeve.
The play is an absolute riot. I've seen this play performed live and while there were some good moments, I liked the book better. The book has a lot more witty humor and a sense of building frustration that the play lacked. The sexual innuendos are nothing too rash as to be insulting or offensive but rather appropriate, something college students can well appreciate. The "love scene" between Myrrhine and her husband Kinesias will leave you rolling on the floor. The use of props such as the "phalli" and towels are brilliant in accompanying the humor. It's funny to read (and picture) how the women "man-handle" their husbands to try to bring peace to the land. As a college student I've read and studied this book and found many interesting values covered that are appropriate for a Rhetoric or gender studies course. The theme of women suffrage, rising up against the men in a time when women need to be heard, is dominant in the play. Women banding together to fight for a common cause is something I have not read before and was pleasantly surprised of. For a Greek play, the women are portrayed as being very human, rather than being serial killers and jealous lovers and the sort. The women are characterized as being very sleek and sexy, something always to look forward to! The men aren't desensitized either; rather the men are just as human as the women.
I recommend this book for any college rhetoric course or even an Interpretation of Literature course. It's the best of both worlds in terms of being very entertaining and having a fair share of educational value.
Rating:
Summary: English class isn't so boring after all
Review: Sex, war, peace, the ingredients to a great play. Lysistrata is about women who are tired of losing their sons in battle. The women band together to bring peace by forming a pact, they refuse sexual intercourse with their husbands unless the war is brought to an end. However, that is only the beginning of the bag of tricks she has up her sleeve.
The play is an absolute riot. I've seen this play performed live and while there were some good moments, I liked the book better. The book has a lot more witty humor and a sense of building frustration that the play lacked. The sexual innuendos are nothing too rash as to be insulting or offensive but rather appropriate, something college students can well appreciate. The "love scene" between Myrrhine and her husband Kinesias will leave you rolling on the floor. The use of props such as the "phalli" and towels are brilliant in accompanying the humor. It's funny to read (and picture) how the women "man-handle" their husbands to try to bring peace to the land. As a college student I've read and studied this book and found many interesting values covered that are appropriate for a Rhetoric or gender studies course. The theme of women suffrage, rising up against the men in a time when women need to be heard, is dominant in the play. Women banding together to fight for a common cause is something I have not read before and was pleasantly surprised of. For a Greek play, the women are portrayed as being very human, rather than being serial killers and jealous lovers and the sort. The women are characterized as being very sleek and sexy, something always to look forward to! The men aren't desensitized either; rather the men are just as human as the women.
I recommend this book for any college rhetoric course or even an Interpretation of Literature course. It's the best of both worlds in terms of being very entertaining and having a fair share of educational value.
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