The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel

by Robert Alter

Overview

"A masterpiece of contemporary Bible translation and commentary."—Los Angeles Times Book Review, Best Books of 1999

Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, The David Story is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Robert Alter's brilliant translation gives us David, the beautiful, musical hero who slays Goliath and, through his struggles with Saul, advances to the kingship of Israel. But this David is also fully human: an ambitious, calculating man who navigates his life's course with a flawed moral vision. The consequences for him, his family, and his nation are tragic and bloody. Historical personage and full-blooded imagining, David is the creation of a literary artist comparable to the Shakespeare of the history plays.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393320770
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/17/2000
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	382,092
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

The most compelling version of [the David] story since the King James Bible.

Robert Fagles

A splendid new translation of one of the Bible's greatest stories.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

[Alter's translation is] sober and clear and fluid, judiciously alluding to King James language while accumulating fresh nuance.... Masterful nuance.

Edward Rothstein - New York Times

A remarkable new translation.... Anyone who cares about the Bible or the English language will want to read it.... Alter's extraordinary work shows that Bible scholarship is healthy and getting healthier. Read it and rejoice.

David Gelernter - National Review

There is no better place to reassess the character of David than in Robert Alter's masterly new translation.... It will, I hope and expect, prove as influential and popular as his version of Genesis.

Jonathan Wilson - New York Times Book Review

There is no better place to reassess the character of David than in Alter's masterly new translation....It will, I hope and expect, prove as influential and popular as his 1996 version of Genesis...[He] can draw a large, serious and, one imagines, largely secular audience of readers eager to take on the Bible as literature.
— New York Times Book Review

Jonathan Wilson

When we look at modern scholarship, we are used to decay, despair, and disguised self-hatred. But Alter's extraordinary work shows that Boble scholarship is healthy and getting healthier. Read it and rejoice.
— National Review

David Gelernter