var reviews=new Array() reviews[0]='The subject matter of Trying Neaira suggests a supermarket tabloid--prominent politicians and their favorite hookers; but in fact this book is a richly informative, exuberant short course in the politics, legal system, and social mores of Athens in the fourth century B.C.
  -- Victor Bers, Yale University' reviews[1]='This clearly written, entertaining, and well-informed book is a wonderful means of entering the world of fourth-century Athens.
  -- Mary R. Lefkowitz, Wellesly College' reviews[2]='Debra Hamel has written a marvelous account of a fascinating series of events in the life of a Greek woman of the fourth century B.C.
  -- Donald Kagan, Yale University' reviews[3]='The fact that we have access to the life of a prostitute like Neaira, which has been excavated, in so engaging a manner, from yet another male-produced text, is something to celebrate.
  -- Scholia Reviews' reviews[4]='[Hamel] generally writes with great verve and humour, which makes the footnotes interesting reading (and how often can one say that!)....
  -- Scholia Reviews' reviews[5]='Hamel...provides a charmingly written, nicely illustrated, and generally convincing analysis of the lurid Athenian speech \"Against Neaira.\"
  -- Choice' reviews[6]='[Hamel], who has previously published a study of the Athenian generalship, does justice to the many facets of the speech in this scholarly and highly entertaining book.
  -- JACT Review' reviews[7]='...the end result is a little gem of a book from which everyone will profit.
  -- Bryn Mawr Classical Review' reviews[8]='Hamel\'s treatment of this complicated story is outstanding not only for its comprehensive (yet remarkably concise) presentation of the social and historical context of fourth-century Athens, but also, perhaps supremely, for its tact.
  -- The New Republic' reviews[9]='[Hamel] turns one of antiquity\'s more fibrous epochs into a lively and witty slice of history, and gives us a story of cupidity, greed and obduracy, spiced with sexual morsels.
  -- Erotic Review' reviews[10]='...under its thin veneer of toga-and-sandal skin-flick is a work of first-rate scholarship.
  -- Erotic Review' reviews[11]='...Hamel\'s grasp of the current scholarship on Athenian law is formidable.
  -- Library Journal' reviews[12]='It is an extraordinary tale, with more than an echo of Arthur Golden\'s Memoirs of a Geisha, and Hamel, unusually for a classicist, is not afraid of a good narrative.
  -- The Daily Telegraph' reviews[13]='A \"gripping story of politics, sex and sleaze in ancient Athens....\"
  -- Sunday Telegraph' reviews[14]='...from street-walkers imprinting come-hither messages in the dust with their sandals, to outraged cuckolds shoving radishes up adulterers\' bottoms, there is plenty here to delight the most prurient reader.
  -- The Daily Telegraph' reviews[15]='[Hamel] tells the tale with clarity and verve and, along the way, she teaches the reader a vast amount about Athenian society in the most interesting and entertaining way.
  -- Donald Kagan, Yale University' reviews[16]='The prose is elegant and deliciously ironic, the scholarship fastidious and up-to-date.
  -- Victor Bers, Yale University' reviews[17]='...the general reader, if enticed to look inside by the cover and title, will discover a colorful story that brings to life the society of Athens in the fourth century B.C.E.
  -- Classical Review' reviews[18]='While the book is written in a fluent, simple style that makes it accessible to the student and the layperson, behind it lies a wealth of scholarship and learning.
  -- Journal of the History of Sexuality' reviews[19]='There is plenty of material in the book that will prove very useful to classical scholars, ancient historians, students of the speech, and every undergraduate student who is trying to become acquainted with women\'s history, the history of sexuality, and, in general, life in ancient Greece.
  -- Journal of the History of Sexuality' reviews[20]='The amount of information Hamel packs into this book is testament to her concise prose style and superior knowledge of ancient Greek society and the reader will finish this book amazed at the amount of knowledge they have absorbed.
  -- Scarecrow<\/a>' reviews[21]='It\'s a lot of fun to read, but Hamel\'s biggest service is in providing a radically different entry point to classical Athens, one that doesn\'t involve triremes or tragedies.
  -- Danny Yee\'s Book Reviews<\/a>' reviews[22]='Debra Hamel\'s Trying Neaira is an object lesson in how to write a non-fiction book which has academic credibility and yet remains easily comprehensible to the general reader.
  -- Grumpy Old Bookman<\/a>' reviews[23]='Mystery, intrigue, lascivious behavior, sensational speeches, and controlled anger among the real-life characters make this an interesting study of ancient Greek history and people.
-- BOOK reMARKS<\/a>' reviews[24]='TRYING NEAIRA is that rare sort of book that informs and entertains in equal measure.
-- Keeper of the Snails<\/a>' reviews[25]='There are academic authors who seem to think that scholarly and accessible are by necessity opposites, so making a book unreadable somehow automatically makes a book more scholarly. The great thing about this book is that it smacks that notion down.
-- History News Network' var whichquote=Math.floor(Math.random()*(reviews.length)) document.write(reviews[whichquote])