The Ancient Novel at the Time of Perry

The honorand of the present volume, Gareth Schmeling, has played a major part in developments arising from Perry's authoritative study The Ancient Romances (1967). This paper discusses Perry's approach to the problems inherited from Rohde's magisterial Der griechische Roman of 1876, and evaluates his contribution to interpretation of the genre. It analyses Perry's work and attempts to indicate both the advances it inspired and problems that Perry himself created. The Ancient Romances constituted a major reassessment of the novel and stimulated interest in it; subsequent approaches to its study are considered. Bryan Reardon taught in Canada, U.K., U.S.A, France; retired in 1994. Principal publications: Courants litteraires grecs des IIe et IIIe siecles apres J.-C. , Paris 1971; Collected Ancient Greek Novels , Berkeley - Los Angeles 1989 (ed.); The Form of Greek Romance , Princeton 1991; Chariton, Callirhoe , Leipzig 2004 (Teubner). He organized the first ICAN (Bangor, Wales) 1976.