The Trojan Women is a genocide narrative. In this play, the great Athenian dramatist Euripides explores the enslavement of women, human sacrifice, rape and infanticide.
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Articles on Guide to the Classics
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From the author of The Yellow Wallpaper, Herland is a feminist classic: darkly comic and rich with irony.
Shamefully under-read in English yet a giant of Spanish literature, Nada is unsentimental but deeply human.
Samuel Beckett’s first play was once most notorious for the audible yawns, walkouts (and fights) during interval. But it is a play of great insight into the condition of waiting.
Addressed to a ‘fair youth’ and later, ‘a dark lady’, the sonnets are less well known than Shakespeare’s plays. A journey into them is an unsettling and beguiling literary adventure.
In this influential novel, two Persians travel to Paris and report their bemusement at its customs. Questions such as the dilemmas of tolerance and the social nature of our identities are explored.
A gem of restrained outrage, Voltaire’s novella speaks powerfully to us in this time of pandemics, floods, conspiracy theories and growing incivility.
First published 150 years ago, this work is shaped by Victorian-era sexual and racial stereotypes. But at a time when other evolutionists stressed humanity’s uniqueness, Darwin emphasised our ‘lowly nature’.
First published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s children’s book has never been out of print. It continues to appeal to adults who prefer childhood.
Written by Kenneth Grahame as a story for his young son, The Wind in the Willows has also been read as a social satire and a gay allegory.
Miles Franklin’s masterpiece features an untamed, unapologetic heroine, positing a choice between career and love rather than women ‘having it all’.
A new Netflix adaptation of Rebecca stars Lily James and Armie Hammer. The novel on which it is based, first published in 1938, explores domestic entrapment.
A new film version of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden opens today. First published in 1911, the novel foregrounds Edwardian beliefs about the importance of gardens that still resonate.
Written between 1348 and 1353, the Decameron is a prescription for psychological survival, a way of mentally distancing from today’s death counts and grim economic forecasts.
The Meditations, by Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, has been described as an ageless, secular gospel. Written in a time of pandemic, it speaks powerfully to us today.
H. G. Wells helped pioneer science fiction with his 1898 book The War of the Worlds. Many iterations later, it still scares and fascinates us.
The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) has been regarded as a classic of European literature since soon after its publication in 1958. It recounts the decline and fall of Sicily’s aristocracy.
What would happen if plague destroyed all of humanity? Mary Shelley’s 1826 book suggests Earth would be better off.
Camus’ The Plague is an uncannily prescient description of the world of COVID-19, giving us reasons for reflection, and finally for hope.
The oldest surviving novel in Latin literature, Satyricon follows three young men on their misadventures and homosexual love triangle.
Top contributors
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Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of Sydney
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Emeritus Professor of Classics, La Trobe University
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Associate Professor in Philosophy, Australian Catholic University
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Professor, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney
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Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
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Honorary Professor, The University of Queensland
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Honorary Associate, Classics and Ancient History, La Trobe University
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Lecturer, the School of Liberal Arts, The University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong
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Associate Professor in Writing Studies, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor of Classics and Head of the Centre for Classical Studies, Australian National University
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Professor, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor in Chinese Studies, University of Sydney
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Postdoctoral research fellow in English, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor in Australian Literature, University of Sydney
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Professor in Writing and Literature, Deakin University
