Bought at a charity book sale. Mass market paperback in fair condition - wear on the cover, yellowed pages, and fewer than a dozen written comments in the margins.

From the back:

"Aeneas flees the ashes of Troy to found the city of Rome and change forever the course of the Western world - and literature as well. Virgil's AENEID is as eternal as Rome itself, a sweeping epic of arms and heroes - the searching portrait of a man caught between fate - that has influenced writers for over 2000 years. Filled with drama, passion, and the universal pathos that only a masterpiece can express, THE AENEID is a book for all time and all people."

A classic - it is what it is. I had never studied this in college, so looked forward to reading one of the foundations of classic literature. For a modern reader, it was a slog - especially the battle scenes which listed every person killed, their back story and the gory detail of how they died. I got a little tired of vomiting blood and meddling gods. What I did appreciate was the context of the piece. It's basically a paean to Augusta Caesar by telling the family myth of illustrious and goddess-born ancestors therefore legitimizing Julius Caesar's and Augusta's own deifications. Virgil also manages to highlight a few other powerful man and their roots among the Aeneas' followers. I'm afraid I can't comment on the quality of the translation, but I found it readable.


2009 THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE - Read