Boitani's presentation of the classics is as entertaining and unexpected as it is informative. He invites the reader to discover the timeless beauty and wisdom of ancient literature, highlighting its profound and surprising connections to the present.

Piero Boitani is one of Italy's most renowned philologists and literary critics. An expert on ancient myths, medievalist, and Dante scholar, he is currently Professor of Comparative Literature at the Sapienza University in Rome.

Ann Goldstein has translated into English all of Elena Ferrante's books, including each of the New York Times bestselling installments in Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet, the fourth of which, The Story of the Lost Child, was shortlisted for the MAN Booker International Prize. She has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a recipient of the PEN Renato Poggioli Translation Award. She lives in New York.