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Ion: A Play After Euripides
Book by H. D. (Hilda Doolittle)
148 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1985
55 people want to read
About the author
H.D.
124 books335 followersAn innovative modernist American writer, Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961) wrote under her initials in a career that stretched from 1909 to 1961. H.D., most well known for her lyric and epic poetry, also wrote novels, memoirs, short stories, essays, reviews, a children’s book, and translations. An American woman who lived her adult life abroad, H.D. was engaged in the formalist experimentation that preoccupied much of her generation. A range of thematic concerns resonates through her writing: the role of the poet, the civilian representation of war, material and mythologized ancient cultures, the role of national and colonial identity, lesbian and queer sexuality, and religion and spirituality.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 26, 2012
Oh Goddess, as you granted a mother to Ion, grant me in my grief the H. D. I loved!
With pain in my heart I have to say H. D. disappointed me. Her annotations have a feeling of editor's notes. She states some historical facts and goes on to summarize the proceedings of the characters or their reasons to act in a given way. A college student could have done that.
H. D. has a beautiful psychological insight, and she is able to find meaning in every symbol. So I was expecting a well developed essay on the characters and their doings, instead I got a condescending smile and an invisible apology. The best we can get of H. D.'s ideas is in the Deus Ex Machina chapter, which she introduces with a nice analysis of Athena and us. Sadly, for the rest of the book we are left with a void to fill by ourselves.
If you are expecting a detailed analysis of the characters' psyche and a new interpretation of the play, in expectation you shall remain. If your interest does not go further than the story, I'd recommend any translation.
Regarding the play, oh well, it follows the same path as many other Greek stories. The search for our past, the eagerness to know who we are, our relationship with the divine and the dissolution-re encounter of a family.
With pain in my heart I have to say H. D. disappointed me. Her annotations have a feeling of editor's notes. She states some historical facts and goes on to summarize the proceedings of the characters or their reasons to act in a given way. A college student could have done that.
H. D. has a beautiful psychological insight, and she is able to find meaning in every symbol. So I was expecting a well developed essay on the characters and their doings, instead I got a condescending smile and an invisible apology. The best we can get of H. D.'s ideas is in the Deus Ex Machina chapter, which she introduces with a nice analysis of Athena and us. Sadly, for the rest of the book we are left with a void to fill by ourselves.
If you are expecting a detailed analysis of the characters' psyche and a new interpretation of the play, in expectation you shall remain. If your interest does not go further than the story, I'd recommend any translation.
Regarding the play, oh well, it follows the same path as many other Greek stories. The search for our past, the eagerness to know who we are, our relationship with the divine and the dissolution-re encounter of a family.
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January 14, 2013812.52 H1111i 1986
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews