ISBN10: 0521333350, ISBN13: 9780521333351, [publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge] Hardcover First Edition 1st printing (1989). 261pp. Original brown cloth with gilt and red titles and decoration to front cover and spine. NEAR FINE copy
[London, United Kingdom] [Publication Year: 1989]

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (...), 1989. XVII,261p. Hard bound. Cover and spine gilt titled. ?The genre of the novel/romance appeared in late antiquity and became extremely popular; its popularity extended into the Byzantine period, almost without interruption; some ancient novelists, such as Heliodorus, were admired in Greece throughout the Middle Ages. Moreover, the Byzantines eventually developed their own genre of the novel. The study of this genre had been rather neglected by nineteenth-century scholars. (?) The serious study of the ancient and medieval Greek novels began in the last thirty to forty years, and research in this popular genre has been growing steadily. (?) In spite of this scholarly attention, however, the Byzantine novels/romances are not as well known as their ancient predecessors. (?) Professor Beaton, the well-known scholar of medieval and modern Greek literature, has put us all in his debt by producing this informative, albeit slim, volume on this neglected topic. His book is meticulously researched, highly readable, and extremely well organized. It formally covers the period from 1071 to 1453, but through constant reference to the Hellenistic predecessor of the Byzantine novel and to its modern Greek successors a larger period is in fact examined. Even though we are told that this study is intended for the nonspecialist, it will be of immense value to specialists.? (MARIOS PHILIPPIDES in Speculum, 1993, p.105). ISBN 0521333350 ...

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, Date: 1989. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine copy in the original decorated gilt-blocked cloth. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Series; Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 6. Physical description; xv, 261 pages, 2 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. Notes; Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-255) and index. Contents; Introduction -- Part I. 1071-1204: 1. The twelfth-century background -- 2. The literary tradition -- 3. The 'proto romance' Diyenis Akritis -- 4. The renaissance of a genre -- 5. The twelfth-century texts -- Part II. 1204-1453 6. The first 'modern Greek' literature -- 7. The original romances: the texts and their stories -- 8. The original romances: narrative structure -- 9. Translations and adaptations of western romances -- 10. Genealogy of the romances -- 11. Common elements of the romances: oral background vs textual interference -- 12. Reception -- Conclusions. Subjects; Romances, Byzantine History and criticism. Byzantine literature History and criticism. Civilization, Medieval, in literature. Byzantine fiction History and criticism. 1989. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521333350 9780521333351 [IE]