Sarah Ruden

One of our leading interpreters of ancient literature, acclaimed translator Sarah Ruden (the Aeneid) has long had a passion for Sylvia Plath’s poetry. In I Am the Arrow: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath in Six Poems, she offers a profound reconsideration of Plath’s genius. Ruden argues that Plath is more than a consummate mythmaker; the poet herself takes on the role of the classical hero: striving, suffering, descending to an underworld that threatens meaninglessness and despair, and returning to speak the previously unspoken. For the first time, a writer and a woman becomes that hero.

“Original and compelling. This book will be an inspiration to new and seasoned readers alike.” -Amanda Golden, co-editor, The Poems of Sylvia Plath

“This book will help the next generation of readers, writers, critics and (not least!) young poets learn from what Plath proved she – and sometimes she alone – could do. There’s no introduction to this very popular poet with this kind of purpose or this kind of spareness or this kind of force.” -Stefanie Burt

The Aeneid stands as a towering work of Classical Roman literature and a gripping dramatization of the best and worst of human nature. In the process of creating this epic poem, Vergil (70–19 BCE) became the world’s first media celebrity, a living legend. Through her intimate knowledge of Vergil’s work, Sarah Ruden brings to life a poet who was committed to creating something astonishingly new and memorable, even at great personal cost.

“A detailed biography of Vergil should be impossible; but Sarah Ruden displays such subtlety, such imagination, such love for her subject, as to render the impossible possible.” —Tom Holland, author of Dominion

“An enlightening and thoroughly modern introduction to Rome’s premier poet. This book should be required reading for every student and reader of Vergil’s immortal verse.”—Daisy Dunn, author of The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny

In this remarkable new translation of the Gospels, Sarah Ruden treats the books of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John with unprecedented precision, uniquely concentrating on the original words and sensitively reflecting on their historical and literary context, to give us the most accessible version of the text available to date. Stripping away the accretions of later theology and pedantry that cover standard English editions of the Bible, this masterful translation presents each Gospel as a narrative that can be read clear through and understood on its own terms. In her skillful and illuminating introduction, Ruden explains where the Gospels came from, how their forms evolved, and how they set about revolutionizing world thought. Succinct yet illuminating footnotes and a discursive glossary explain the many word choices that depart from the traditional ones. The result is a striking and persuasive reappraisal of the “good news” of the Gospels.

“Electrifying . . . [Ruden transforms] these most familiar of ancient texts into fresh reading experiences.”—The Christian Science Monitor