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800 BC – AD 5002 annotated works
Classical
The foundations: Greek and Roman epic, drama and philosophy, translated and re-translated for every century since. Almost every later English writer is arguing with something on this shelf.
✦Epic scale: a single journey that stands for a whole civilisation
✦Fate as a character — the gods argue, humans pay
✦Heroism measured by what it costs the people at home
✦Direct speech and debate rather than interior monologue
Writing then
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