Love Songs of the New Kingdom by John L. Foster

Love Songs of the New Kingdom Reviews

• 
  Joshua Henreckson

  I read this book as part of my research for a term paper in a history class on the Ancient Near East. I didn't know what to expect going in, but I absolutely loved reading this collection.
  
  Foster certainly makes the language of these poems more accessible for modern readers than other translators do. That makes these translations a bit controversial among the more conservative translators and scholars, but it helps them come alive on the page.
  
  These poems are tender, lush, scandalous, and always interesting to read. They're also one of the best peeks we have into the fantasies and artistic sensibilities of a culture over 3,000 years in the past. That link to the past is alienating at times, discomfiting at others, but sometimes (for me at least) it reaffirmed that people haven't really changed all that much.
• 
  Lizy

  A fascinating read.