Seneca: The Tragedies (Complete Roman Drama in Translation)

Rating:
Summary: Good, but often more adaptation than translation
Review: The "translations" in this two volume set aim at capturing the flavor of Seneca in roughly the same number of lines of poetry (most translations are longer than the originals, expanding upon the compacted Latin for the sake of literalness). These are good reading, and do capture something of the power of Senecan tragedy. But teachers should beware that they are often interpretive adaptations rather than literal translations. Ideas are often added to clarify the translators' sense of what a speech is about, for example. These occasionally obtrusive choices make these texts less than optimal for certain kinds of classroom teaching.