Author Description

Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1841-1905) is a leading figure in the history of British classical scholarship and education in the last third of the 19th century. Celebrated as an editor of all the surviving plays of Sophocles, Jebb, as this collection illustrates, had exceptionally wide interests in the field of classical studies and was keenly involved in public affairs. This 9-volume collection should make accessible many influential works by Jebb which have been long out of print. It includes the two-volume "The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus", still a fundamental resource for the study of Greek political and social history. The elementary introductions to "Homer" and "Greek Literature" (volume 1) and the magisterial survey "The Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry" (volume 4) reveal Jebb as a great educator and popularizer. Many of the works show Jebb as an outstanding essayist, able to communicate with a wide audience through periodical articles, not only on classical literature, but on the classical tradition, modern literature, educational reforms, the developing field of archaeology, and travel in Greece and Turkey. Volume 9 contains the illuminating and informative biography by Jebb's wife. While Jebb was not radical in his methods or his opinions, he did effectively attach himself to the cause of reform - the reform of the classical curriculum, the widening of classical research and the general improvement of the educational system - causes all vividly illustrated by the works contained in this set. With an extensive new introduction and a bibliography of Jebb's writings and archival materials by Robert B. Todd, Professor of Classics at the University of British Columbia, this collection of writings by a great Victorian polymath is a useful resource for all scholars working in the areas of Classics, cultural studies and Victorian studies.