Awards

• Winner of New York Times Notable Selection 2004
• Winner of PEN Center USA Literary Award for Translation 2005

Overview

Through a distinguished career of critical scholarship and translation, Robert Alter has equipped us to read the Hebrew Bible as a powerful, cohesive work of literature. The culmination of this work, Alter's masterly new translation and probing commentary combine to give contemporary readers the definitive edition of The Five Books. Alter's majestic translation recovers the mesmerizing effect of these ancient stories?the profound and haunting enigmas, the ambiguities of motive and image, and the distinctive cadences and lovely precision of the Hebrew text. Other modern translations either recast these features for contemporary clarity, thereby losing the character of the original, or fail to give readers a suitably fluid English as a point of contact. Alter's translation conveys the music and the meaning of the Hebrew text in a lyrical, lucid English. His accompanying commentary illuminates the text with learned insight and reflection on its literary and historical dimensions.

Full Product Details

9780393333930

Table of Contents

Reviews

Robert Alter's translation with commentary of The Five Books of Moses can be fairly described as a godsend. Seamus Heaney, Books of the Year, The Times Literary Supplement In this remarkable translation... a monument of scholarship... Alter brings a kind of sensitivity to bear on moment after moment of his translation... James Wood, London Review of Books The commentary is at least as important as the translation, and the two together make up a unique contribution both to biblical studies and to the understanding and appreciation of a text that is central to Western culture. John Barton, The Times Literary Supplement ...a new translation with fascinating annotations... Robert Crumb, Summer Books, The Guardian

""Robert Altern's translation with commentary of 'The Five Books of Moses' can be fairly described as a godsend"". Seamus Heaney, Books of the Year, ""The Times Literary Supplments"". ""In this remarkable translation....a monument of scholarship....Alter brings a kind of sensitivity to bear on moment after moment of his translation..."".James Wood, ""London Review of Books"". ""The commentary is at least as important as the translation, and the two together make up a unique contribution both to biblical studies and to the understanding and appreciation of a text that is central to Western culture"". John Barton, ""The Times Literary Supplement"". ""A new translation with fascinating annotations"". Robert Crumb, Summer books, ""The Guardian"".

Author Information

Robert Alter's translation of the Hebrew Bible, the magnificent capstone to a lifetime of distinguished scholarly work, has won the PEN Center Literary Award for Translation. His immense achievements in scholarship ranging from the eighteenth-century European novel to contemporary Hebrew and American literature earned Alter the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Los Angeles Times. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available