Lysistrata Book Reviews

Lysistrata by Germaine Greer & Phil Willmott Book Summary

A new version of the Greek classic play adapted by world-famous feminist author, Germaine Greer.

The ancient world is gripped by a long and futile war. While the men of Athens fight in a foreign land, the women of Athens can take no more. Lysistrata, the play’s heroine, persuades the women to barricade themselves inside a building and refuse to give their husbands sex until they negotiate an end to the Peloponnesian War and secure peace. She also persuades the women of Sparta, the enemy, to join her cause and refuse sex to their husbands until they too agree to stop the war. The men eventually give in, peace is agreed and the women go home to their husbands.

REVIEWS

“…fast, broad, silly and profound…”  -- The Independent On Sunday

“…wonderfully fragrant, upper crust Lysistrata…”  --The Guardian

"Known as the ‘Father of Comedy’ Aristophanes wrote many comic plays in his lifetime, although only eleven now remain in their entirety for us to enjoy. Although comical this does have a serious point to make, and thus does have a feminist dose in its telling.
As the Peloponnesian War grinds on so the women on both sides become fed up with it all. Their men are off fighting, and when they come home it is for sex and for getting the women to care for them. For Lysistrata though enough is enough, and thus she comes up with a plan to end the interminable warring. If all the women withhold their favours then the men will be faced with having to do everything themselves, from looking after the babies, the cleaning and every other chore. They would then become too busy to go around fighting. But will her plan work, and will the other women carry it out?
There is innuendo here and a lot of humour, and in today’s world there is certainly a feeling of girl power, although the Greeks wouldn’t have seen this, and there are at times certain elements that show this. There are after all some women who are as horny as the men and need some entertainment, and thus a bit of infighting between the females, so this which was written by a man is not about doing away with a patriarchal society, also some take this play as being anti-war and pacifist, but when you read it you do not see that here. There is no mention of stopping war for all time, instead this is about a particular and rather long war, which all of us can understand would have been punishing on both sides.
At the end of the day then you can take certain themes from this and extrapolate them, but on the other hand you can just sit back and enjoy what is a very entertaining comedy, with sex and gender at the heart of the plot.'

                                                                           -- ***** M.DOWDEN
                                                                          TOP 50 AMAZON REVIEWER

Germaine Greer, broadcaster, journalist and academic is best known as an author for her groundbreaking work The Female Eunuch and The Beautiful Boy. She has also been a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother.

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