Product Description
This book is geared primarily to students approaching the Aeneid for the first time.It attempts, through discussion of a wide variety of topics, to convey a balanced impression of the nature of the poem as a whole.An appendix includesa version of and ancient Life of Virgil and information about the ancient commentary on him. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An introduction to Virgils Aeneid
The book came on time and hopefully will be very useful in the class I am taking. It was in the perfect condition the seller said it would be in. ... Read more

Product Description
'Something greater than the Iliad is being brought to birth', wrote Virgil's contemporary Propertius, in Western literature's most famous flourish of advance publicity. The Aeneid was published after Virgil's death, and at once established itself as Rome's national poem. The hero Aeneas flees from the sack of Troy, and after much suffering carves out a foothold for the future Romans in Italy. While defining and celebrating what it means to be Roman, the Aeneid confronts, with a bleak pathos, the tragedy involved in Rome's destiny. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

1950's Verse translation
Cecil Day Lewis's translation verse has a lucidity and swiftness that keeps the story moving.

C. Day Lewis was a student of Jackson Knight and translated the Aeneid in the early 50's a few years before Jackson Knight's famous Prose version. It was originally prepared and translated for a public broadcast, and so some liberties have been taken by C.D. Lewis, but overall it carries much fire and energy needed for such a long poem.

The only criticism I have is that the font used for the text is a bit hard on the eyes and the sentence layout is a bit cluttery. Personally I think that prose is more suitable for Virgil's Aeneid.

(However, I recently discovered Sarah Ruden's Verse translation and have to saw that I rank it at the VERY TOP of ALL previous Verse translations!...it is that incredible, I'm really short on words for her!)

-I would suggest comparing a few verse translations (Lewis VS Fitzgerald VS Ruden) and a couple prose translations (Knight VS West) to find out which one works the best for your studying / enjoyment.

cheers! ... Read more

Product Description
This ground-breaking and authoritative volume is an indispensable reference book to accompany the study of Virgil. It is a multi-authored guide aimed at students and anyone with an interest in great literature and the classical heritage. The chapters contain essential information while also offering fresh and original insights into the poems and their author.Emphasis is given to the responses to Virgil over the centuries, particularly by other creative artists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Read Virgil in Isolation from this Book
This so-called Companion to Virgil offers little to students of the poet, and certainly nothing to general or curious readers.Very plainly, this volume is completely animated with theory--theories which are neither just to Virgil nor compatible to the Virgilian tradition.This "companion" is ultra-modern in approach, so it is anachronistic in effect.Virgil, his devotees, his commentators, his imitators, and his worthy translators, would not comprehend, nor desire to comprehend, the methods strewn through the pages of this volume.Read Virgil in isolation from this book, and with the reverence that is his due; and if this is not sufficient, then seek the guidance of the ancients or that of their successors, the Humanists.

Hard for general reader: too technical & theoretical.
General readers may well be confused & misled by the introduction to this book, which indulges in what is known as "reception theory": according to this theory, Virgil's reception by readers through the ageshas been marked by partiality & bias, which the present editor sets outto expose. He forgets that he, too, is a reader with an outlook rooted in aspecific (our own) time. His own limitations as a reader become apparentwhen he produces a confused & reductive essay on Virgil's first majorwork, The Book of Bucolics (also known as eclogues) -- a source for thetradition of pastoral poetry in the West. Other scholars will no doubt findother essays to praise or blame in such a wide range, but no one, I think,will admire the theoretical posturing & self-involvement of theeditorial frame. Those wishing a fuller discussion of issues raised by thisbook may reach me at the appended address. ... Read more

Product Description
Love can be surprising. Love can be heartbreaking. Love can be an art. But love is the singular emotion that all humans rely on most . . . and crave endlessly, no matter what the cost. United by this theme of love, the nine titles in the Penguin Great Loves collection include tales of blissful and all- encompassing, doomed and tragic, erotic and absurd, seductive and adulterous, innocent and murderous love. A deeply moving addition to the Penguin Great Ideas and Great Journeys series, each gorgeously packaged book will challenge all expectations of love while celebrating the beauty of its existence.

All books in this series: Cures for Love
Doomed Love
The Eaten Heart
First Love
Forbidden Fruit
The Kreutzer Sonata
A Mere Interlude
Of Mistresses, Tigresses and Other Conquests
The Seducer's Diary
... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A bit overpriced, but good transaction
I dont remember correctly the proper description of the book in terms of its condition, but it was pretty used, which is ok, but I think it was overpriced for its condition. Overall, I didnt have problems at all.

Love this book!
I loved this book.It was amazing to me how i identified with the choices of our hero; he was not willing to let his future or destiny go for love.This is a brilliant inspiration for any young person considering giving everything up for love.Note: the end is sad but as long as you realize that each person is accountable for their own actions all is well.

If You Like Shakespeare This Could Be For You
It's a short book that would be idea for people who enjoy reading Shakespeare or even perhaps Jane Austen.Taking through the story of the Trojan Horse but from a different perspective gives you the tortured love with some action thrown in

I stuggled a bit.
I actually did like this book , I got a bit confuse with some of the characters and the way the story was laid out.It was not what I expected.

Perfect
The book was new and it arrived at the approximated time...i have no complaints whatsoever. ... Read more

Product Description
Describes the last hours of the siege of Troy. ... Read more

Product Description
The Eclogues, ten short pastoral poems, were composed between approximately 42 and 39 BC, during the time of the 'Second' Triumvirate of Lepidus, Anthony, and Octavian.In them Virgil subtly blended an idealized Arcadia with contemporary history.To his Greek model - the Idylls of Theocritus - he added a strong element of Italian realism: places and people, real or disguised, and contemporary events are introduced.The Eclogues display all Virgil's art and charm and are among his most delightful achievements. Between approximately 39 and 29 BC, years of civil strife between Antony, and Octavian, Virgil was engaged upon the Georgics. Part agricultural manual, full of observations of animals and nature, they deal with the farmer's life and give it powerful allegorical meaning.These four books contain some of Virgil's finest descriptive writing and are generally held to be his greatest and most entertaining work, and C. Day Lewis's lyrical translations are classics in their own right. ... Read more

Product Description
The disciplines of classical scholarship were established in their modern form between 1300 and 1600, and Virgil was a test case for many of them. What became of Virgil in this period - how he was understood and how his poems were recycled - is an example of something that occurs to every classic when it outlives it original context: the words remain but their meaning becomes unsponsored. What did readers assume about Virgil in the long decades between Dante and Sidney, Petrarch and Spenser, Boccaccio and Ariosto? Which commentators had the most influence? What story, if any, was Virgil's Eclogues supposed to tell? What was the status of his Georgics? Which parts of his epic attracted the most imitators? Building on specialized scholarship of the last hundred years, this book provides a panoramic synthesis of what scholars and poets from across Europe believed they could know about Virgil's life and poetry. ... Read more

Product Description
In Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, one of the most studied books of that epic poem, Dido, queen of Carthage, is inflamed by love for Aeneas. The goddesses Juno and Venus plot to unite them, and theirmarriageis consummated in a cave during a hunt. However, Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his duty, and the hero departs despite Dido s passionate pleas. At the end of the book, Dido commits suicide. This new edition of the Latin text of Book IV replaces the long-serving edition by Gould & Whiteley, making the book more accessible to today's students and taking account of the most recent scholarship and critical approaches to Virgil. It includes a substantial introduction, annotation to explain language and content, and a comprehensive vocabulary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review of Storr's 'Harper's University'
This is a history of fair quality. I found it a little less personal than Goodspeed's, but also a little less like a tedious checkbook. I didn't find the prose very engaging, but it was informative. The most notable portion of Storr's history is his consideration of early educational policy at Chicago, and the development of its social life. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first major single-volume edition in English of Book IX of Virgil's Aeneid, a pivotal part of the poem that contains the nocturnal interlude of the ill-fated expedition of the young Trojans Nisus and Euryalus. The volume includes a detailed linguistic and thematic commentary on the text, and an introduction consisting of a series of interpretative essays on the book. It offers invaluable help to students of Virgil and will also be of interest to professional scholars of Latin literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beautiful mythalogical poetry meant to be read as a chapter
The Aeneid in general is a delicious epic poem, but it is wrong to have a single volume being published on it's own, since each part depends on every other one so completely to finish the Trojans' voyage. This was a particularly moving and tragic volume, containing Queen Dido of Carthage'smanipulation by the temperamental gods in a power struggle between themstemming from the Trojan War. Aeneas, soon to become founder of the Romanrace, and his followers enjoy a stay in Carthage, a favorite city ofJuno's, while being driven very far off course by the vindictive goddess,in what is a frustrating journey but involves a lot of wonderful mythologythat entertains and is quite definitive. ... Read more

Product Description
Virgil Thompson is universally recognized as one of the dominant music critics whose unique sensibility was informed by his groundbreaking work as a composer of the mid twentieth-century. Whether writing for a daily newspaper or an academic journal, Thompson brought wit and erudition to a literary form that is often staid. Not suffering fools gladly, unwilling to kowtow to the powers that be, Thompson and his writing remain remarkably relevant and entertaining today. This essential reader includes his essays on making a living as a musician; his articles on classic composers; his relation to his contemporaries; his articles on newcomers in the music world, including John Cage and Pierre Boulez; his autobiographical writings and commentary on his own works. ... Read more

Product Description
In this collection of twelve of his essays, distinguished Virgil scholar Michael Putnam examines the Aeneid from several different interpretive angles. He identifies the themes that permeate the epic, provides detailed interpretations of its individual books, and analyzes the poem's influence on later writers, including Ovid, Lucan, Seneca, and Dante. In addition, a major essay on wrathful Aeneas and the tactics of Pietas is published here for the first time.

Putnam first surveys the intellectual development that shaped Virgil's poetry. He then examines several of the poem's recurrent dichotomies and metaphors, including idealism and realism, the line and the circle, and piety and fury. In succeeding chapters, he examines in detail the meaning of particular books of the Aeneid and argues that a close reading of the end of the epic is crucial for understanding the poem as a whole and Virgil's goals in composing it. ... Read more

Product Description
Trade Paperback ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

honest seller
The seller sold me a paperback instead of the advertised hardcover i ordered. Once he realized his error he absorbed all charges and told me to keep the paperback anyway. Now, that's an honest seller that i'd deal with again in a heartbeat. Bob W.Goshen, Ct.

Interesting History of New York City
Although his work is long, Peterson offers a detailed, interesting look atorganized crime in N.Y.C.His accounts, from the 19th century gangs of the5 Points to the mid 20th century Mafia families, are gold to any N.Y.C.mafia buff! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Still a gas
Virgil Partch was the greatest cartoonist ever, dealing with the bizarre and slapstick.He was funny 50 years ago, he's funny today, and he will be funny 50 years from now.He worked at one time for Disney studios, but I'm sure he was way too mcch for Walt.

Slightly dirty old man writes for same
I found this book hidden away in our home when I was a kid. Mom caught me reading it and yelled at Dad for putting it in an obvious place. Now that I read it again in the 21st Century, it looks pretty tame. This guy was pretty funny and had a long career.

I gave the book to my Dad for Father's Day, as Mom had thrown his original copy away years ago (probably to protect the Grandkids). ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Virgil's georgics
We studied it in college class.It took too long to get it after I ordered it.

Janet Lembke's Virgilian Lesson Book
It's terribly unfashionable now, especially among "serious" poets, to premise that nature holds a mirror to humanity - humanity being far too civilized and dominant to be dumped into Mother Nature's roiling pot of existence. Many of our literary lights celebrate their egos ad nauseum. Nature in poetry might be a useful tool for symbolic argument, but seldom is it allowed to speak for itself - polishing our mirrors. When Janet Lembke and I first met we recognized our kinship instantly - that perennial society of ancients living and breathing science and religion, art and industry, myth and person all in one.

Janet, of course, is known for her many books on natural history that with literate candor and canny insight meld classical and mythic allusion with observed fact in crisply intimate and wide-eyed, lovely words. Thus I wasn't surprised when she, with Merlin-ease, transformed a series of photographic captions for a collection of miraculous olive trees images (Tuscan Treesby Mark Steinmetz and Janet Lembke, The Jargon Society, 2001) into a soaring book of minimalist poetry - conjuring from Italian soil and oil a harmonious tome of visual and poetic delights. No Italian chef could any more elegantly cook up a better Bolognese, a more perfect and integrated-integral -- one.

Janet's sisterhood with the earth has led inevitably to the garden and the table, thence to books on cooking and gardening - and even an impressive personal manual on how to help someone die. Early in her career, Janet translated old Latin poems, snatching them from the hands of pedantry back into their natural poetic state. Her translations of Hecuba, Electra, and other classical plays demonstrated her agility with archaic languages and her understanding of the antique mind. So it was inescapable that she would turn her gaze, and her bamboo stylus, to Virgil's Georgics. In her translator's note she raps her rapture in meeting with Virgil and reflects on those "men who knew much about poetry but little about farming" who before her rendered Virgil in "British English." She proclaims her "pleasure has been to use American English. In with grain, out with corn! Out with truncheons and buskins, in with sturdy twigs and boots!" It would take just such a woman farmer as Janet, who has farmed the wild and the tame as Virgil did, to do him contemporary justice.

Janet and I - imperfect and impudent children of Dame Kind that we are - proselytize ceaselessly our inseparable ties to the earth and the cosmos. The undeniable and inexorable threat of global climate change and the continued testosterone-driven antagonisms of nationalistic and religious fervor and market-driven greed (these even Virgil experienced first-hand) dispossesses us of our rightful bounty, peace, culture, self-awareness, and self-determination. Miguel de Unamuno instructs us, "From your work you will be able one day to gather yourself." Virgil teaches incessant labor, but also of its handsome gifts-fertility, abundance, and character. Virgil and Janet demand we re-inhabit our world in primal symbiosis. Being fruitful and multiplying is a much more complex command than we know. Virgil's Georgics is one lesson-book which can serve us well. Janet's Virgil proves the point. I'm happy to walk the furrows with Janet, my green friend.

[...]

Updated Translation Highlights Virgil's Relevance
Janet Lembke's new translation of The Georgics is correctly promoted as an Americanized translation of the classic poem.Just as Romans in the movies always seem to speak with British accents, English translations of Latin classics have tended toward British -- usually antiquated British -- diction. Lembke chooses a refreshingly straightforward American idiom that nonetheless feels true to the source.Lembke clearly has a background in farming, or at least gardening, because you can almost see the dirt under her nails and smell the earth on her jeans as you read, which I suspect is how an appreciative Roman reader might have felt about Virgil's work.

Virgil wrote The Georgics in a time of turmoil, delivering a didactic poem -- a lecture -- to inspire the militarized Romans to return to the attentive, productive farming on which Roman power originally was built.Perhaps he was something of a Wendell Berry for his time, for Virgil teaches, preaches, scolds, praises, admonishes and laments all in each of the four parts of the poem.Two of his overarching themes are that man must toil to make the world productive, but that disaster can befall every endeavor despite work and know-how.These themes are as relevant to a 21st Century office worker as they were to a Roman farmer.

Finally, Virgil is also deeply patriotic, lavishing praise on Italy for its bountiful soil and climate, promoting it as the best place on Earth.Here Lembke's American translation resonates because I, like Virgil, am very partial to my native land.Virgil knew firsthand the tragedy and injustice of politics and war (his family lost their land in northern Italy to resettled veterans), and does not turn a blind eye to the flaws in his nation and the troubles of his times.But he sees redemption in the hard work of making his native land fruitful, just as any American today might do.

I sing of farms
I liked the Aneid much better. I had read an earlier translation of the Georgics, which was high falutin', deep in 19th century style. This one flows more,and the language is more natural, butI had hoped to tranported back to the verdant fields of Italy during the Roman era. Unfortunately, it made me realize that much of the Georgics happens to be dull.

... Read more

Product Description
A lyrical patchwork of recollections of people and places left behind

"So much left behind. Our house. Our family. Our lives together,"Virgil Suárez writes in his memoir of life as a Cubanrefugee. Beginning with the saga of the balseros that unfolds beforeSuárez's eyes, when, at his mother's insistence, he turns on the TVand witneesses a confrontation between the Coast Guard and the Cubanrafters, Suárez draws his memories of his family and friends leavingCuba and ties these through verse and prose to his experience ofexile.

Rather than decry the politics of persecution under a dictatorship or celebrate the freedoms enjoyed in the United States, Suárez instead brings life to his memories on the page. Suárez writes, "Those old ghosts of places we knew, lived in moments we survived, those are the things I'm afraid of." But those old ghosts populate his stories: the shadows of his extended family standing on the other side of the glass at the departure gate in the airport, the next-door neighbor of his childhood with whom he plays firing squad, his mother's last wish to return to Cuba, and his promise to his father not to return until a change comes to Cuba. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

EXCELLENT
Once again, Suarez writes intriguing stories about his life as a Cuban immigrant whose father was exiled when he was only seven years old. This books is worth every penny and then some. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Poetic interpretation
A lovely poetic interpretation of the Eclogues, but remember that it is a poetical interpretation.This is not a literal translation and Ferry takes some liberties with what might be Virgils' intentions to maintain a certain level of poetical language.If one is well acquainted with Virgil's shepherds, Ferry's might seem a little less vivid.I prefer Ferry's translations of Horace as being more dynamic.

NOT bilingual!
Caveat emptor: the Kindle edition of this book is NOT bilingual.Had I known, I would not have purchased it. ... Read more

Product Description
The Romans saw an analogy between the ordered workings of the natural universe and the proper functioning of their own expanding empire, between orbis and urbs.Philip Hardie's new work explores Virgil's poetic and mythic transformation of this imperialist ideology with reference to such traditions as the poet/cosmologer, the use of allegory to extract natural-philosophical truths from mythology and poetry, poetic hyperbole, and the "universal expression." ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more