Theophrastus' Characters

<p>This book presents an introduction to the <i>Characters</i>, a collection of thirty amusing descriptions of character types who lived in Athens in the fourth century BCE. The author of the work, Theophrastus, was Aristotle's colleague, his immediate successor and head of his philosophical school for thirty-five years. Pertsinidis' lively, original and scholarly monograph introduces Theophrastus as a Greek philosopher. It also outlines the remarkable influence of the <i>Characters</i> as a literary work and provides a detailed discussion of the work's purpose and its connection with comedy, ethics and rhetoric. </p> <p>Sources and abbreviations; Preface; Introduction; 1. Theophrastus: his life, works and character; 2. Before and after Theophrastus’ <i>Characters; 3. </i>The <i>Characters</i> as a comedy of manners; 4. Behaving badly: ethics and the <i>Characters; 5. </i>Style, delivery and the role of character in rhetoric; 6. Epilogue: conclusions and implications<i>; </i><i>Index</i></p>