Robert Alter

A masterpiece of deep learning and fine sensibility, Robert Alter's translation of the Hebrew Bible, now complete, reanimates one of the formative works of our culture. Capturing its brilliantly compact poetry and finely wrought, purposeful prose, Alter renews the Old Testament as a source of literary power and spiritual inspiration. From the family frictions of Genesis and King David's flawed humanity to the serene wisdom of Psalms and Job's incendiary questioning of God's ways, these magnificent works of world literature resonate with a startling immediacy. Featuring Alter's generous commentary, which quietly alerts readers to the literary and historical dimensions of the text, this is the definitive edition of the Hebrew Bible.

A Translation with Commentary

The Hebrew Bible

A new translation of the first book of the Bible honors meanings and literary strategies of the ancient Hebrew language, while bringing the stories together in a narrative format that makes it read more like a fully integrated book

Genesis

The Five Books of Moses

In what is both a radical approach to the Bible, and a fundamental return to its narrative prose, Robert Alter reads the Old Testament with new eyes—the eyes of a literary critic. Alter takes the old yet simple step of reading the Bible as a literary creation.

The Art Of Biblical Narrative

The Book of Psalms

Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes : a translation with commentary

The wisdom books

Presents a modern translation of the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, providing an annotation and commentary for each verse.

The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary

A landmark event: the complete Hebrew Bible in the award-winning translation that delivers the stunning literary power of the original. A masterpiece of deep learning and fine sensibility, Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Bible, now complete, reanimates one of the formative works of our culture. Capturing its brilliantly compact poetry and finely wrought, purposeful prose, Alter renews the Old Testament as a source of literary power and spiritual inspiration. From the family frictions of Genesis and King David’s flawed humanity to the serene wisdom of Psalms and Job’s incendiary questioning of God’s ways, these magnificent works of world literature resonate with a startling immediacy. Featuring Alter’s generous commentary, which quietly alerts readers to the literary and historical dimensions of the text, this is the definitive edition of the Hebrew Bible.

The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (Vol. Three-Volume Set)

Dahlia Ravikovitch

New and Selected Poems

The Window

The Art of Bible Translation

Alter not only speaks about the distinctive pleasures of reading poems, plays, and novels, but shows, by recourse to many passages from English, American, and French literature, how rich and diverse these pleasures can be. Defining literary language as "an intricate, inventively designed vehicle for setting the mind in restless pleasing motion," he proposes a set of concepts that will point a return to reading. He also offers fresh explanations of familiar terms such as character, structure, allusions, and perspective, and analyzes various texts. ISBN 0-671-62783-X: $18.95.

In an Ideological Age

The Pleasures of Reading

Three decades ago, renowned literary expert Robert Alter radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as not only a human creation but a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. In The Art of Biblical Poetry, his companion to the seminal The Art of Biblical Narrative, Alter takes his analysis beyond narrative craft to investigate the use of Hebrew poetry in the Bible. Updated with a new preface, myriad revisions, and passages from Alter's own critically acclaimed biblical translations, The Art of Biblical Poetry is an indispensable tool for understanding the Bible and its poetry.

The Art of Biblical Poetry

Studies in the Picaresque Novel

Rogue's Progress

"An award-winning translation brings new immediacy to these beloved books of the Bible. Read them for the first time, again. These five late biblical books offer readers a range of pleasures not usually associated with the Bible. They are artful, entertaining literary works-innovative, even startling. Women often stand center stage. Song of Songs is a celebration of young love, frankly sensuous, with no reference to God or covenant. It offers some of the most beautiful love poems of the ancient world. The story of Queen Esther's shrewd triumph is a secular entertainment that mixes farce with sly sexual comedy. The character of Ruth embodies the virtues of loyalty, love, and charity in a harmonious world. Enigma replaces harmony in Daniel, whose feverish night dreams envision the end of time. And the traditions of prophecy are recast in the tale of a fish that, on God's command, swallows Jonah and imprisons him in its dark wet innards for three days. Alter's translation restores the original power of these popular books"--

the Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Daniel : a translation with commentary

Strong as death is love

Analyzes the structure, functions, and metaphors of the poetry in Psalms, Job, Proverbs, and other books of the Old Testament

Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature Robert Alter

אורי אלטר

An exposition of the relationship between tradition an modernity reflected in the writings of three Jewish scholars

Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem

Necessary Angels

Frank Kermode

Offers guidance for reading and studying each book of the Old and New Testament.

The Literary Guide to the Bible

A distinguished critic rescues literature from the ivory tower and reestablishes reading as a personal source of complex pleasure and insight.

Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, "The David Story" is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Alter's translation paints not only the heroic picture of David in his fight with Goliath, but also portrays David as an ambitious, calculating man with a flawed vision.

A Translation With Commentary Of 1 And 2 Samuel

David Story

How the King James Bible has influenced the style of the American novel from Melville to Cormac McCarthy The simple yet grand language of the King James Bible has pervaded American culture from the beginning—and its powerful eloquence continues to be felt even today. In this book, acclaimed biblical translator and literary critic Robert Alter traces some of the fascinating ways that American novelists—from Melville, Hemingway, and Faulkner to Bellow, Marilynne Robinson, and Cormac McCarthy—have drawn on the rich stylistic resources of the canonical English Bible to fashion their own strongly resonant styles and distinctive visions of reality. Showing the radically different manners in which the words, idioms, syntax, and cadences of this Bible are woven into Moby-Dick, Absalom, Absalom!, The Sun Also Rises, Seize the Day, Gilead, and The Road, Alter reveals the wide variety of stylistic and imaginative possibilities that American novelists have found in Scripture. At the same time, Alter demonstrates the importance of looking closely at the style of literary works, making the case that style is not merely an aesthetic phenomenon but is the very medium through which writers conceive their worlds.

Robert Alter

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