Book Details

[Olson] is making the ostensibly less attractive parts of classical dramatic literature better known: the fragments. He manages to make them fascinating - the publication is so well designed that the reader lacks none of the tools or information he needs to make sense of often tiny fragments (Listy Filologicke)

Broken Laughter is an admirable propaideutic for the study of comic fragments by an ideally equipped scholar. It fills a gap in the bibliography and will be warmly welcomed by scholars and students interested in this important material. (Zachary Biles, Journal of Hellenic Studies)

Olson's work is a welcome and valuable arrival. (Andrew Hartwig Scholia)

There is a great deal of learning on display in Broken Laughter and much information communicated with great economy. (Matthew Leigh, Times Literary Supplement)

Broken Laughter will help break new ground in rendering more accessible the world of Greek comedy beyond Aristophanes and Menander. (Tom Hawkins, Bryn Mawr Classical Review)

...There is a great deal of learning on display in Broken Laughter and much information communicated with great economy. The chosen fragments typically raise a key issue and the commentary then reaches outwards to the mass of further references to the theme in other fragments as well as complete plays...there is much to admire... (Mtthew Leigh, Times Literary Supplement)

This beautifully produced book is a unique and indispensible resource for all students of classical Greek literature...Essential. (Choice)

this book would be well-placed in the library of anyone who is interested in Greek comedy (Andrew Hartwig, Scholia Reviews)

A collection of over 200 of the most interesting and important fragments of Greek comedy, accompanied by a commentary; an extensive introduction discussing the history of comic genre; a series of appendixes on the individual poets, the inscriptional evidence, and the like; and a complete translation of the fragments. Individual sections illustrate the earliest Greek comedy from Syracuse; the characteristic features of Athenian `Old', `Middle', and `New Comedy'; the comic presentation of politicians, philosophers, and women; the comic reception of other poetry; and many aspects of daily life, including dining and symposia.