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Talking Classics

The Shock of the Old

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Talking Classics

By: Mary Beard
Narrated by: Mary Beard
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Summary

 FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF EMPEROR OF ROME AND SPQR

'The rock star scholar of Ancient Rome' FINANCIAL TIMES
'The reigning Queen of Classics' SPECTATOR

What's exciting about a piece of bread 4,000 years old? Or some pots of paint abandoned in the eruption at Pompeii? Why should we be bothered with the distant past anyway? What's the point?

The life, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome have something to offer everyone. They are not the property of wealthy white men only. They make us wonder how to make sense of people who lived long ago (from angry landlords to giggling senators) - and to think harder about our own world, to look at it differently.

In Talking Classics, Mary Beard points to the surprising connections between antiquity and the present. From revolutionaries to dictators, Bob Dylan to Beyoncé, she joins forces with the varied modern characters who have been transfixed by the ancient world. It's not compulsory, she argues, to be excited by antiquity, but it's a shame not to be.

After half a century teaching and studying classics, she fills the book with lively stories, curious facts and some good gossip. Talking Classics explains why the deep past does really affect us all.©2026 Mary Beard (P)2026 Profile Books Limited Ancient Europe Greece Rome Ancient History Ancient Greece
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Not her most original - as if you follow her, it feels like she’s shared a lot of these ideas before. But no less engaging for that.

There’s lots of memoir mixed in from her long life in education.

And her enthusiasm for the ancient world comes through strongly. she both reminds us that we can never really know what life was like then and points out lots of tiny moments of apparent overlap. A delight

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Mary never disappoints - and this book in many ways builds on her previous outings, focussing on how ancient Rome & Greece can still surprise (and at times shock) the modern reader and gets us to think about our own lives and the world we live in - plus some of the same issues and questions we have today that the ancients themselves asked and struggled with. The book also provides a more personal insight from Mary, given her long & successful career - of what inspired her to enter the world of classics and a retrospective view on some of the things she's learnt along the way.......and why the study of the classical world is as important today as its ever been. Thanks Mary - I look forward to your next chapter!

Always A Good Read!

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