Poetics by Aristotle, trans. by James Hutton

In the millennia since Aristotle analyzed the form of drama up to this time, some things have changed, but in the essence of how drama works, not much. To say a work, or a technique, is classic is simply to say that it works for all time. Aristotle’s thoughts on reversals, recognitions, beginnings, middles, endings, causality, and other aspects of storytelling are indelible, infallible guides to the art, and Hutton’s translation, unlike many abstruse translations of this short work, is very readable.