"A virtuosic, witty, charming translation of the greatest epic ever written about mice, with wonderful illustrations by Grant Silverstein. Stallings’ elegant rhyming couplets are the perfect choice to honor the mousy Muse."—Emily Wilson, Professor of Classics, University of Pennsylvania From the award-winning poet and translator A. E. Stallings comes a lively new edition of the ancient Greek fable The Battle between the Frogs and the Mice. Originally attributed to Homer, but now thought to have been composed centuries later by an unknown author, The Battle is the tale of a mouse named Crumbsnatcher who is killed by the careless frog King Pufferthroat, sparking a war between the two species. This dark but delightful parable about the foolishness of war is illustrated throughout in striking drawings by Grant Silverstein. The clever introduction is written from the point of view of a mouse who argues that perhaps the unknown author of the fable is not a human after all: “Who better than a mouse, then, to compose our diminutive, though not ridiculous, epic, a mouse born and bred in a library, living off lamp oil, ink, and the occasional nibble of a papyrus, constantly perched on the shoulder of some scholar or scholiast of Homer, perhaps occasionally whispering in his ear? Mouse, we may remember, is only one letter away from Muse.” "[Stallings] couplets . . . have a lively, nimble music that should captivate modern ears . . . Providing an earthy, oboe-like obligato to Ms. Stallings's airs are the illustrations of Grant Silverstein, cross-hatched sketches that multiply like mice on the page . . . The Battle, in which beans are happily worn rather than eaten, still has the power to delight."—Wall Street Journal A. E. Stallings is an American poet who has lived in Athens, Greece since 1999. She studied Classics at the University of Georgia, and later at Oxford University. She has published four collections of poetry, Archaic Smile (which won the 1999 Richard Wilbur Award), Hapax (recipient of the Poets’ Prize), Olives (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Like (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry). Her translation of Lucretius (into rhyming fourteeners), The Nature of Things, was called by Peter Stothard in the TLS “One of the most extraordinary classical translations of recent times.” Grant Silverstein is an American artist who specializes in etchings of a narrative character and in studies of figures, landscapes, and animals. With his wife and two cats, he spends winters holed up in his studio in rural Pennsylvania, where he uses a catch and release system for visiting mice and the occasional frog. Come spring, he ventures forth to display his work at outdoor festivals; he feels fortunate to have made his living this way for forty years. He has illustrated two previous Paul Dry Books titles, Davey McGravy by David Mason and The Verb 'To Bird' by Peter Cashwell.

This book offers students of Greek and scholars interested in Greek literature the first English-language commentary on the “Battle of Frogs and Mice”, a short animal epic ascribed to Homer in the ancient world. The book includes a contextualizing introduction covering issues of literary genre, literary history and the language of Homeric Greek. In addition to a revised Greek text, the volume also offers a new translation of the poem. The commentary furnishes readers with extensive linguistic and literary information so that they may investigate the problem of the poem's character and authorship on their own. A full vocabulary at the back ensures this is a one-stop shop for students reading the poem.

Are you curious about the private laboratory of Giacomo Leopardi, Italy’s greatest modern lyrical poet? Interested in using expert maps to explore it, while deepening your acquaintance with one of the most creative materialist thinkers? This collection of essays makes very original use of the new translation of Leopardi’s Zibaldone di pensieri and investigates its connections to all his other works. Whether your primary interest lies in Italian literature and criticism, linguistics and poetics, the origins of genres such as the fantastic, or in philosophical queries regarding materialism and hedonism, this collection offers original research that will challenge the reader to view this outstanding intellectual in a new light. Offering some of the earliest reflections against anthropocentrism, championing the artist’s interest in the natural sciences, and questioning humanity’s purpose(s) in this world, Leopardi’s work is presented in this volume as an indispensable tool to understand the complexity of Italy’s cultural transformations between the 18th and the 19th centuries.

From Mickey to Jerry, Rizzo to Pinky, mice have played an important role in our childhood tales. Often a heroic figure in culture and fiction—mice are the iconic symbol of Disney and Earth’s intellectually superior race in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—they are also considered one of the human race’s greatest adversaries, responsible for disease and plague. Presenting a natural and cultural history of the mouse, this book explores the large role this diminutive animal plays in both the animal kingdom and human imagination. Examining the evolution, species, habitats, and behaviors of mice, Georgie Carroll reveals that they are accomplished survivors, having colonized six of the world’s continents and even traveled into space. As one of the earth’s smallest prey, the mouse, she shows, represents courage, perseverance, and adaptability. She surveys the depiction of mice in art, myth, literature, and folklore, considering how they are held in divine regard in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Carroll also delves into the integral place mice hold within the modern scientific endeavor—that of the laboratory animal. Telling the story of this beguiling creature in rich detail, Mouse is an intriguing look at an animal we have worshipped, tested, slaughtered, loved, and loathed.