Heroism and moral grandeur are the keynotes of most classical Greek literature; realism as we know it is rear.  The two writers included in this volume – Menander  and  Theophrastus – are among the few who have drawn faces on the Greek crowd and shown them to us as they were.

          The book includes "The Characters" by Theophrastus and several plays written by Menander – The Bad Tempered Man, The Arbitration, The Unkindest Cut, The Samian Woman, The Hero, The Farmer, The Sicyonian and fragments of others ….