The Acharnians/The Clouds/Lysistrata 'We women have the salvation of Greece in our hands' Writing at a time of political and social crisis in Athens, the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes was an eloquent, yet bawdy, challenger to the demagogue and the sophist. In Lysistrata and The Acharnians, two pleas for an end to the long war between Athens and Sparta, a band of women on a sex strike and a lone peasant respectively defeat the political establishment. The darker comedy of The Clouds satirizes Athenian philosophers, Socrates in particular, and reflects the uncertainties of a generation in which all traditional religious and ethical beliefs were being challenged. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Alan H. Sommerstein

Lysistrata and Other Plays centers a disgruntled woman whose attempt to end a war takes the battle from an open field to the soldier’s bedroom. Wives from both camps deny their husbands basic affection in an effort to quell the violence. Set during the Peloponnesian War, the women of Greece, led by Lysistrata, create a plan to stifle the conflict between Athens and Sparta. Together, they agree to stage a sex strike, refusing to sleep with their husbands until a resolution is met. The strategy has an undeniable effect on politicians, generals and soldiers eager for a return to normalcy. It dramatically changes the focus of the warring parties, signifying the potential for peace. Lysistrata and Other Plays confronts gender norms and empowers those who are often marginalized. It’s a common theme in Aristophanes’ work that is also found in The Assemblywomen and Thesmophoriazusae. This political satire illustrates how fundamental needs always take precedence over superficial wants. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Lysistrata and Other Plays is both modern and readable.

The first three acts of Molière’s Tartuffe were first performed for Louis XIV in 1664, but the play was almost immediately suppressed—not because the King disliked it, but because the church resented the insinuation that the pious were frauds. After several different versions were written and performed privately, Tartuffe was eventually published in its final five-act form in 1669. A comic tale of man taken in by a sanctimonious scoundrel, the characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among some of the great classical theater roles. As the family strives to convince the patriarch that Tartuffe is a religious fraud, the play ultimately focuses on skewering not the hypocrite, but his victims, and the hypocrisy of fervent religious belief unchecked by facts or reason—a defense Molière himself used to overcome the church’s proscriptions. In the end, the play was so impactful that both French and English now use the word “Tartuffe” to refer to a religious hypocrite who feigns virtue. In its original French, the play is written in twelve-syllable lines of rhyming couplets. Curtis Hidden Page’s translation invokes a popular compromise and renders it into the familiar blank verse without rhymed endings that was popularized by Shakespeare. The translation is considered a seminal one by modern translators. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

A Classic Available Again Aristophanes was the greatest writer of ancient Athenian "old comedy," known for its satires of contemporary life and for its broad, often obscene humor. "Lysistrata" was first produced in 411 BC, when the Peloponnesian War had been devastating Greece for 20 years. Most people know the plot: Lysistrata assembles women from all of Greece, and they agree that they will not have sex until the men make peace. Aubrey Beardsley was the greatest and the most controversial Art Nouveau illustrator in England, famous for his illustrations of Mallory's "Morte d'Arthur," Oscar Wilde's "Salome," Pope's "The Rape of the Lock," and for several magazines. Because he was associated with Oscar Wilde, Beardsley lost his job as art editor of a magazine named "The Yellow Book" in 1895, soon after Wilde was arrested for homosexuality. He was approached by Leonard Smithers, a publisher of erotic books, who asked him to illustrate "Lysistrata." His illustrations are very much in the spirit of Aristophanes, as funny as they are obscene. Beardsley converted to Catholicism in 1897, and soon after, he asked Smithers to "destroy all copies of "Lysistrata"" with its "obscene drawings," but Smithers refused. Beardsley died of tuberculosis in 1898, at the age of 26. Smithers initially published "Lysistrata" in a limited edition of one hundred copies. It was reprinted in the 1960s and 1970s, but copies have long been scarce and expensive. Though some may find it offensive, we believe it is valuable to reprint this book, so all the books illustrated by this great artist are readily available.

In Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the women of Athens, fed up with the war against Sparta, go on a sex strike and barricade themselves into the acropolis to persuade their husbands to vote against the war. It is the most often performed of all Aristophanes' comedies. It is also, perhaps, the most misunderstood. This collection of essays by eight leading academics - written for sixth-form students and the general public alike - sets the play firmly in its historical and social context, while exploring Aristophanes' purpose in writing it and considering the responses of modern audiences and directors. The collection has been assembled and edited by David Stuttard, whose energetic new performing version of the play is included in this volume. Contributors include: Alan Beale; Edith Hall; Lorna Hardwick; James Morwood; Martin Revermann; James Robson; Alan H. Sommerstein; Michael Walton.