The Aeneid (Penguin Classics)
Product ID: 4244744
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"I sing of arms and of the man" After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, Virgil wrote The Aeneid to honour the emperor Augustus by praising Aeneas – Augustus’ legendary ancestor. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, The Aeneid also provided Rome with a literature equal to the Greek. It tells of Aeneas, survivor of the sack of Troy, and of his seven year journey – to Carthage, falling tragically in love with Queen Dido; then to the underworld, in the company of the Sibyl of Cumae; and finally to Italy, where he founded Rome. It is a story of defeat and exile, of love and war, hailed by Tennyson as ‘the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man’. David West’s acclaimed prose translation is accompanied by his revised introduction and individual prefaces to the twelve books of The Aeneid . For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Review: Read The Iliad, The Odyssey and finally The Aeneid to understand the stories' timeline - Even though Virgil's The Aeneid (c. 29 BCE-19 BCE) was written c. 700 years after The Iliad c. (725 BCE), Virgil picks up the story of Aeneas after the fall of Troy as if it just happened. Aeneas leaves with his father, son, and a small contingent of Trojans after the Greeks slaughtered everyone in Troy and destroyed the city, and they sail away. The gods give Aeneas a mission to find a land which he can call home. That land with eventually be Rome. Virgil's The Aeneid, while a well written story with a lot of action and wars, was actually a piece of propaganda commissioned by the first emperor Augustus to glorify his reign and to promote the values of Rome after Julius Caesar. It is a good read, though. Aeneas shows the embodiment of piety, duty, and honor, all of which would become Rome's ideals. He make mistakes by falling in love with Dido and breaking her heart by leaving. He travels to the Underworld and tries to apologize to her by saying it was his fate and the god's will. She turns away. Calypso, however, give him good advice on how to avoid mistakes while sailing. Eventually, he makes it Latium, which will become Rome, where he fights several battles. It shows that Rome has a long history that starts with Aeneas. Review: Item is as described - Condition, print and format are as described.
| Best Sellers Rank | #72,150 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #142 in Ancient & Classical Poetry #167 in Epic Poetry (Books) #323 in Literary Criticism & Theory |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 960 Reviews |
L**Z
Read The Iliad, The Odyssey and finally The Aeneid to understand the stories' timeline
Even though Virgil's The Aeneid (c. 29 BCE-19 BCE) was written c. 700 years after The Iliad c. (725 BCE), Virgil picks up the story of Aeneas after the fall of Troy as if it just happened. Aeneas leaves with his father, son, and a small contingent of Trojans after the Greeks slaughtered everyone in Troy and destroyed the city, and they sail away. The gods give Aeneas a mission to find a land which he can call home. That land with eventually be Rome. Virgil's The Aeneid, while a well written story with a lot of action and wars, was actually a piece of propaganda commissioned by the first emperor Augustus to glorify his reign and to promote the values of Rome after Julius Caesar. It is a good read, though. Aeneas shows the embodiment of piety, duty, and honor, all of which would become Rome's ideals. He make mistakes by falling in love with Dido and breaking her heart by leaving. He travels to the Underworld and tries to apologize to her by saying it was his fate and the god's will. She turns away. Calypso, however, give him good advice on how to avoid mistakes while sailing. Eventually, he makes it Latium, which will become Rome, where he fights several battles. It shows that Rome has a long history that starts with Aeneas.
R**N
Item is as described
Condition, print and format are as described.
P**D
Surprisingly good!
Virgil is notoriously harder to render in English verse than Homer. The haunting rhythm of his hexameters and his stately diction, enriched with archaisms, have arguably never found a comfortable equivalent in our language. Yet David West's version, in plain, modern English prose, somehow evokes the feeling of Virgil's epic better than any other version I know. It's not just his close fidelity to descriptive detail, but also the cadences of the prose, natural, unforced yet richly suggestive.
D**R
A readable (English) translation of a classic
I've always wanted to know the classics on which so much of our western culture is based, and this is an easy to read translation of Virgil's great writing.
A**S
A MUST READ
so good I loved it. I RECOMMENDED it to all ancient history lovers To be honest though it gets a little weird at times. But overall a great read.
B**L
Terrific translation.
This Penguin classic is a beautiful translation and a nice publishers paperback. While used and slightly annotated in margins, it is a treasured classic which I am enjoying and will love to have access from now on from my bookcase.
A**L
The best English prose Aeneid of all
For those who believe, with Robert Frost, that poetry is what gets left out in the translation, a fine prose Aeneid can be a joy and a treasure. David West's Aeneid rendering is both. Lively, lucid, thoughtful, and briskly paced.
H**N
Excellent !!!
Excellent story of Aeneas. Octavian had Virgil write this for him, to show that he was a decendent of Aeneas...the great Trojan hero.
A**R
A very good read
A subject I loved...
D**I
Amei
Recomendo a leitura!
P**X
Product Review.
Book received in excellent condition.
H**N
great
good quality go secondhand. ordered for uni and it’s perf
D**I
History of the world
A wonderful read with philosophy poetry and humanity combining to create great art. Little wonder that Dante revered Virgil and considered him more than a father
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