The Aeneid
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
The ancient epic of adventure, war, passion, and tragedy that follows a Trojan warrior on his journey to the land that will become Rome.
A work of epic poetry that has survived for over two thousand years, The Aeneid is the story of Aeneas. Born to a goddess and a mortal man, Aeneas leads a fleet on the Mediterranean; is beset by a great storm; becomes entangled in a romance with Dido, the queen of Carthage; and visits the underworld. His true destiny, though, awaits him in Italy, and he engages in bloody battle as he makes his way there—under the watchful gaze of the gods and goddesses who frequently intervene.
A fundamental classic of Western literature, The Aeneid is a majestic blend of myth, legend, and history that continues to transport modern readers into a long-lost world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Princeton scholar Fagles follows up his celebrated Iliad and Odyssey with a new, fast-moving, readable rendition of the national epic of ancient Rome. Virgil's long-renowned narrative follows the Trojan warrior Aeneas as he carries his family from his besieged, fallen home, stops in Carthage for a doomed love affair, visits the underworld and founds in Italy, through difficult combat, the settlements that will become, first the Roman republic, and then the empire Virgil knew. Recent translators (such as Allen Mandelbaum) put Virgil's meters into English blank verse. Fagles chooses to forgo meter entirely, which lets him stay literal when he wishes, and grow eloquent when he wants: "Aeneas flies ahead, spurring his dark ranks on and storming/ over the open fields like a cloudburst wiping out the sun." A substantial preface from the eminent classicist Bernard Knox discusses Virgil's place in history, while Fagles himself appends a postscript and notes. Scholars still debate whether Virgil supported or critiqued the empire's expansion; Aeneas' story might prompt new reflection now, when Americans are already thinking about international conflict and the unexpected costs of war.
