Customer Reviews

The Aeneid (Penguin Classics)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have read this epic in the original Latin(which I recommend HIGHLY), and I have looked through several translated versions. The Aeneid is unquestionably one of the greatest works of classical literature ever written, if not the pinnacle of ancient writing(of course, there are several extremely strong contenders for that title, so I won't go that far, but it's as good a choice as any of them). Its complex layers upon layers of meaning and suggestion reveal it to be one of the great works of literature ever. The love of Dido and Aeneas, the Sack of Troy, the descent into the underworld, and the war over Italy's future are matched by few scenes in ANY work. Even just the political subtext of the Aeneid as propaganda for Augustus and old Roman ideals makes the epic much richer than Homer's straightforward tales of grand exploits and the power of the gods.

For such a magnificent piece of writing, nothing less than the original language can convey all of its nuances (Vergil was considered the absolute master of Latin in the epic meter, which wasn't even well-suited for Latin, but he was just that good). Even the sounds of the words and the crazy impossible-for-English word order evoke images and emotions that fit the actual sequence of events perfectly. However, expecting absolutely everyone in the world to know enough Latin to read the thing is absurd. In the case that you must read an English translation, read the W F Jackson-Knight version. Not only is he extremely faithful to the original Latin wherever it makes sense, but also, he doesn't dilute the high epic language of the Aeneid with colloquialisms to make it "more accessible"(my complaint with the NEW Penguin Classics version). Also, he doesn't try to "write his own scenes" to fit his own vision of what the epic's emotional impact should be(trust me...the original can't be fixed). Finally, only with this version does the profusion of imagery actually feel as moving as the originals...although I praise Jackson-Knight's faithfulness to the original Latin, that doesn't mean that the language is subdued or stilted...his translations are POWERFUL! You'll feel every drop of blood, see every grand temple and castle, and hear every cry of anguish. Also, he's not one of the stupid people who tries to translate into English verse...the two languages' meters are simply incompatible, and it always feels contrived when one tries to fit them to each other (the worst example of this is Alexander Pope's, in most other pursuits a great writer, rhyming version in iambic pentameter...UGH).

In short, just buy this version, because no other comes close(and Amazon is one of the few places one can easily find it! order quickly before they decide to take it out of print again!)

The Aeneid, one of the most famous and widely translated books of all time, was written during Rome's `golden era' by Publius Vergilius, an unassuming scholar in acquaintance with the Emperor Augustus. Fragmented history informs us that this long Latin poem came into being in part to give the empire a creation-mythos, in part to honor the sagas of Greece from which the bulk of the Roman belief-paradigm originated: scheming Gods, inflexible Fates, the monsters and melodrama human beings can't seem to get enough of...highbrow entertainment of the bygone era; a homage to and subtle critique of the Homeric ideal.

And with hindsight, The Aeneid easily surpasses its source material in terms of scope and sheer writing. The book begins shortly after the devastation of Troy, and the first half chronicles the search of the refugee Trojans for a new home. The task is not an easy one: Aeneas the True and his compatriots are plagued by bad weather and the hallmarks of myth (the Cyclopes from the Odyssey make a brief cameo), while the Gods above, vindictive and conspiring, seek to either halt or hurry along their progress. The second half of the book dictates the arrival of the Trojans to Latium (Italy), the resistance they meet from the natives, and the establishment of Rome proper. The last quarter of the book is a montage of bloody battles, swords and sorrow taking their claim for the greater good of a future empire.

I do not speak the `dead' language of Latin and thus cannot comment on the translation itself; regardless, W.F. Jackson's prose is delight to read - certain passages contain beautiful rhyming schemes; the dialogue and description are extremely well done, retaining an `old world' tone without becoming stilted or faux-archaic. And throughout the epic adventures and the blood-drenched battles, Virgil's theme - that of Rome's foundation and its preconceived glory - shines through abundantly clear, without ever drowning the reader in heavy-handed sermonizing or extreme sentimentality.

An essential text for the student of myth & history. Five stars.

The recording offered here by Blackstone Audiobooks is an astonishing bargain. Frederick Davidson's unabridged (13-hour 11-CD) rendition of Jackson-Knight's classic prose translation of the Aeneid is well done and at a price that beggers belief. The only reason I hesitated before giving it a well-deserved five stars is that I personally found Davidson's delivery to be rather camp to my English ear, which did mean I had to listen for a while to tune into the words. Then it was wonderful.

I found the narrator's style to be more than a little camp, at times quite annoying, and I would hope that someone who was meeting the Aeneid for the first time would NOT buy this rendition, however, as an AP Vergil teacher who reads a translation every year before school starts, it was fine.

I read this book while on the beach in East Africa and was blown away. The beautiful descriptions of temples, castles, people, and their motivations for living and dying were incredible. Particularly, the Carthaginian Queen Dido and her disastrous love for Aeneas made me cringe as she cried in death on the fire. Buy this book---it will resonate within you for years.

I have no idea what the previous review has to do with thebook. I'd like to say that the Aeneid is a beautiful tale and thatthe translator did a beautiful job of maintaining its beauty in English. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend to anyone interested in Classics and Ancient Epic poetry. The above review should be taken 'cum grano salis' (with a grain of salt).

This is not a book for someone hoping to use it for help on their translation. I bought it thinking to use it to check my translation against in my Latin class, not realizing how incredibly liberal the translation in the book is. So, if you are considering buying this for a Latin class, don't. If, however, you do want to read it for an English class, go ahead and buy it. The parts that are very different from the Latin are there for comprehension and are helpful in understanding the plot.

Be careful! This audio book is actually in MP3 format, not CD-ROM. I ordered and returned it twice. I am not sure what is more irritating, the false labeling or Amazon's unwillingness to ship the advertised product.

I think I was way in over my head trying to get into this book. I have read some other ancient texts (Gilgamesh, Odyssey), but those seemed a lot simpler and straight-forward than this. A classic so they say, but so many gods and stories all thrown together...I just couldn't make heads or tails about it.

[This review relates to the wondrous Penguin Classics
edition of THE AENEID, "Tranlated into English Prose with
an Introduction by W.F.Jackson Knight."]

If Virgil could lead the poet Dante through the wasteland
and Inferno at the end of the Middle Ages, perhaps the poet
Virgil, aided by the skill and inspiration of the translator
W.F.Jackson Knight, might perform the same needed function for
us, here at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st
centuries.
W.F.Jackson Knight, in his very interesting and insightful
"Introduction," makes the argument that "the AENEID of Virigl
is a gateway between the pagan and the Christian centuries."
That much, itself, might serve as the basis for some excellent
essays of analysis and interpretation. But Knight has his own
path to tread. So we should let him.
-------------
"In the beginning, Rome had been a tiny settlement
surrounded by enemies -- and it had needed a strong will:
proud,disciplined, and sustained -- to survive at all.
Rome did survive and was led on by successive hard-won
victories to world dominion.
The early history is obscure, but the process seems
to have taken at least five centuries of almost continuous
warfare, and during that period the Romans achieved
unparalleled success, apparently through unique merits
of their own, combined with a special share of divine
favor and good fortune [a nice touch of Pagan sentiment,
there, to counter-balance the perhaps over-emphasis on
the Christian tie at the beginning]. This spectacular rise
of Rome was a matter for wonder and a certain reverence
to the Romans themselves, especially when, in the
later years of the republican period, new chances of peace
and prosperity, AND A NEW ACCESS OF SKEPTICISM threatened
THE OLD HABITS OF LOYALTY, INTEGRITY, and SELF-SACRIFICE"
[capitals are mine].
---------
Knight continues with his excellent "Introduction" and talks
of Publius Vergilius Maro [usually denoted as "Virgil"], the
excellent, visionary poet and artist who created the epic
poem for Roman patriotic pride, values teaching, and national
identity -- THE AENEID.
I especially like Knight's discussion of the influences on
Virgil as he wrote the epic.
--------
"The AENEID is the third, last, and longest of Virgil's
poems. It is a legendary narrative, a story about the
imagined origin of the Roman nation in times long before the
foundation of Rome itself. * * * The AENEID, as any epic should
be, is an exciting story extremely well told and full of
incident; it can be read as a story and nothing more. However,
besides being a story, it is a kind of moving picture --
carrying allusive, and in a sense, symbolic meanings. * * *
In the poem [the gods and goddesses]communicate with mortal men
either directly or through dreams, visions, omens, and the
words of prophets and clairvoyants. Virgil had no doubt that
the affairs of the earthly world are subject to the powers of
another world, a world which is normally, but by no means
always, invisible, but no less real for that....
* * * The great poets have a way of making what is seen
reveal the unseen; and they seem to do this better if they
collect an enormous quantity of observations on life, their
own and other people's, and then condense it under strong
pressure so that even a few words have a great power of
suggestion and persuasion. No doubt they are all the time

choosing with precise accuracy what is most important. The
result is an allusive and partly symbolic kind of language
able to communicate not merely single happenings but the
universal truth behind them.
These greater poets also reach back across past time, and
represent a view of the world which belongs not to one man
or one generation of men but to the men of many succeeding
generations or even a whole civilization. The experience
which is distilled may be the experience of many centuries;
and it may be condensed and focused by a single genius in
a single poetic statement. That is what Virgil did to the
experience of the Greeks and Romans in the AENEID."
["Introduction." W.F. Jackson Knight. AENEID. Penguin
Classics.]
-----------------
In talking of the other literary influences which helped
inspire Virgil and which he distilled into his own poetic
process with the helps of the fires of creative energy
and intuition, Knight mentions (of course) the fact of Homer
and his two major epics, the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY.
He also mentions the influence of Lucretius. But he says:
"Virgil knew his [Lucretius] work well and made free use
of many hundreds of his phrases in the AENEID, and let them
suggest ideas. But since HE VIOLENTLY DISAGREED WITH
THE MATERIALISTIC PHILOSOPHY of LUCRETIUS, he could not
adopt his thought. Indeed, he apparently delighted in turning
it upside down, and expressing something far more like the

idealistic philosophy of PLATO, even when the phrases of
Lucretius were influencing him."
I very much prefer Knight's "prose" English version of the
AENEID over most of the other ones which I have encountered.
His English prose flows like poetry, and is eminently readable
as well as instantly understood. One encounters that famous
opening, translated so well into intuitive, inspired English
prose: "This is a tale of arms and of a man. Fated to be
an exile, he was the first to sail from the land of Troy
and reach Italy, at its Lavinian shore. He met many
tribulations on his way both by land and on the ocean; high
Heaven willed it, for Juno was ruthless and could not forget
her anger. And he had also to endure great suffering in
warfare."
Inspiring and instructive, for Romans, for Dante, and
for us!