Among extant Greek comedies, the Frogs is unique for the light it throws on classical Greek attitudes to tragedy and to literature in general. Sir Kenneth Dover's authoritative edition, which drew together the relevant scholarship in a full introduction and extensive commentary, has been the most comprehensive edition available.

The general purpose and character of this abridged version remains the same: to provide a helpful guide for students who wish to translate the play or need to interpret it for performance. In this edition nothing relevant to the performance of the play on stage has been sacrificed, while information on manuscripts and discussion of the history of the text have been pared to a minimum, and arguments on metrical analysis and other controversial points have been abbreviated.

A few conclusions reached in the original edition have been changed in the light of the work done by other scholars since 1993. The inclusion of a vocabulary should reduce the need for students to have recourse to a lexicon.