Philip Freeman’s Most Recent Book Receives Positive Review From Wall Street Journal

Philip Freeman, professor of humanities and the Fletcher Jones Chair of Western Culture at Seaver College, recently received a positive review from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) concerning his translation of Aristotle’s Poetics. 

“How to Tell a Story: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Storytelling for Writers and Readers, by Pepperdine professor Philip Freeman, is a lively new translation geared for maximum utility,” writes the WSJ.
 
Although this text of Aristotle’s has been translated before, Freeman’s new edition is being heralded as a more accessible option for contemporary audiences. In its original form, Poetics exists as a series of compiled lecture notes Aristotle likely gave his students regarding the art of storytelling. Yet, given the two-thousand-year time gap, these documents have become disorganized, damaged, and, in some cases, destroyed.
 
Freeman’s work, thus, serves as the first comprehensively organized text of Aristotle’s narrative analysis. It includes added bullet points, chapter titles, section headers, and a series of endnotes to help guide readers through the arcane aspects of the original work.

“Freeman works hard to soften Aristotle’s aridities for modern readers,” says the WSJ, recognizing the professor of humanities efforts.

How to Tell a Story: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Storytelling for Writers and Readers was published on May 10, 2022 by Princeton University Press, and it is Freeman’s twenty-first book.  It is also his second publication of 2022; Hannibal: Rome’s Greatest Enemy was published earlier in the year by Pegasus Books/Simon Schuster.
 
To learn more about How to Tell a Story: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Storytelling for Writers and Readers or the Wall Street Journal review visit the respective publications websites.