She might have taken a scholarly approach instead the book is a rollicking, fast-paced romp, easily read in a sitting." - The Hudson Review The story is a classic parable 'in good Homeric Greek' that underscores the futility of war but is replete with foolish names and activities that an author like Stallings can play with in rhymed couplets, giving free range to her imagination and wit. Stallings to discover The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice when it first appeared at the Gennadius Library in Athens. The illustrations by Grant Silverstein maintain this balance, taking the combatants seriously (or as seriously as one can take the skinny legs of a standing frog wielding a beet leaf for a shield) and conveying the intensity of the battle."- Light Poetry Magazine Of course, because this is Stallings, the translation is in tight rhymed verse that balances both the grandeur of epic and the particular qualities of the warriors. It even ends with a crustaceus ex machina you will not expect. ![]() The names of the heroes (King Pufferthroat begins the plot, and one whiskered Morselsnatcher is its fiercest fighter), the armor and armaments (chickpea shells for helmets and bean pods for shin protection, spears made of rushes), and the inevitable interference of the gods are all present and adorably parallel with expectations. Those familiar with the Iliad will thrill at its miniaturization. (Was it deliberate? You decide.) The subsequent outcry leads to all-out war, albeit a tiny one. " The battle begins in Aesopian style with a frog luring a mouse to its death. ![]() It shouldn’t be so rare for a poet to be serious and to sparkle at the same time, but Stallings is one of the few."- London Review of Books Nony Mouse’ – plus a glossary of dramatis personae, an appendix and the notes of an erudite classicist, this is a playful yet serious work of scholarship in miniature. "With two introductions – one under Stallings’s name and another by ‘A. They are an integral part of the success of this small volume, which I am very glad to have read." - Los Angeles Review of Books I instead came to appreciate their larger role as visual harmonics - a substitute for a lyre, of sorts, accompanying the combined voices of bard and translator. There’s too much drama in the drawings’ visual punctuation. But as I read on, I realized it wasn’t that at all. At first, I thought of the illustration as maybe somewhat analogous to medieval illumination. The main section presents the poem interwoven on every page with Silverstein’s pencil drawings - of frogs and mice and weasels and hawks and snakes and gods with human faces. Her rhymed couplets are the product of an innately sensitive ear. And she is especially well regarded for her seemingly natural command of meter and rhyme - a command that’s uncommon in our era. Stallings is both a trained classicist and a well-regarded poet in English. ![]() Stallings translation of the Batrachomyomachia, we have what seems a comparably ambitious and convincing re-creation of that ancient recreation. "It takes real poetic skill to parody a master so subtly that the result becomes mistaken for the poetry of the master himself at play. I suspect this will become a beloved addition in many home libraries."- Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe "Stallings' translation of this ancient epic is a delight: charming, witty, and vividly alive, with buoyant rhymes and eye-catching illustrations. The Battle, in which beans are happily worn rather than eaten, still has the power to delight." - Wall Street Journal Stallings's airs are the illustrations of Grant Silverstein, cross-hatched sketches that multiply like mice on the page. Providing an earthy, oboe-like obligato to Ms. have a lively, nimble music that should captivate modern ears. ![]()
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