Critical Praise

"Genesis remains our best single collection of perennial stories. Alter translates them glowingly, without slickness or archness. His running commentary illuminates the true language of life in both Hebrew and English."Robert Shattuck

—"Here is Genesis in all its power and presence, thanks to Robert Alter's masterly translation, which reconciles the ancient and the modern in remarkable ways. For Alter offers us an English prose as gravely cadenced as that of the King James Bible, and yet as fresh, precise and strong as the best contemporary narrative can be. As one experiences—simultaneously in effect—Alter's arresting Introduction, his probing commentary, and his memorable version of the Hebrew text itself, one is struck, again and again, by the eternal spirit of renewal which drives our founding book. Only through such a total re-creation can we celebrate Creation in full measure. Here is the Genesis for our generation and beyond. An occasion for praise, and perennial gratitude as well."

Robert Fagles, Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Princeton University and award-winning translator of The Iliad

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