Classical Indiscretions: A Millennial Enquiry into the Status of the Classics

This provocative book, written with a light touch but firmly rooted in the Classics, ranges over the whole of Western literary cultures, addressing many of the major issues we face at the turn of the millennium. What is our shared cultural currency? What use, good or bad, do we make of it? Why should anyone study the Classics? The tyranny of millennial introspection, the urge for instant gratification, the attraction of the cultural cannon, the way writing encloses or even imprisons – all these themes are brought together in a passionate plea for the Classics as essentially impervious to these vulgar urges of our age – the Age of Indiscretion.