The Aeneid: by Virgil, Robert Fagles

From the award-winning translator of The Iliad and The Odyssey comes a brilliant new translation of Virgil's great epic Fleeing the ashes of Troy, Aeneas, Achilles' mighty foe in the Iliad, begins an incredible journey to fulfill his destiny as the founder of Rome. His voyage will take him through stormy seas, entangle him in a tragic love affair, and lure him into the world of the dead itself-all the way tormented by the vengeful Juno, Queen of the Gods. Ultimately, he reaches the promised land of Italy where, after bloody battles and with high hopes, he founds what will become the Roman empire. An unsparing portrait of a man caught between love, duty, and fate, the Aeneid redefines passion, nobility, and courage for our times. Robert Fagles, whose acclaimed translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were welcomed as major publishing events, brings the Aeneid to a new generation of readers, retaining all of the gravitas and humanity of the original Latin as well as its powerful blend of poetry and myth. Featuring an illuminating introduction to Virgil's world by esteemed scholar Bernard Knox, this volume lends a vibrant new voice to one of the seminal literary achievements of the ancient world. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 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. Editorial Reviews A new and noble standard bearer . . . There's a capriciousness to Fagles's line well suited to this vast story's ebb and flow. -The New York Times Book Review (front page review) Fagles's new version of Virgil's epic delicately melds the stately rhythms of the original to a contemporary cadence. . . . He illuminates the poem's Homeric echoes while remaining faithful to Virgil's distinctive voice. -The New Yorker Robert Fagles gives the full range of Virgil's drama, grandeur, and pathos in vigorous, supple modern English. It is fitting that one of the great translators of The Iliad and The Odyssey in our times should also emerge as a surpassing translator of The Aeneid. -J. M. Coetzee - From the Publisher Robert Fagles's translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey have become the most honored and popular contemporary versions of those Greek epic poem masterpieces. Now this Princeton professor emeritus presents his translation of Virgil's Aeneid, the third pillar of classical poetic literature. Fagles's surehanded rendering of this 1st-century B.C. text has already won praise from scholars and writers; for example, novelist J. M. Coetzee praised the translator for capturing the full range of Virgil's drama, grandeur, and pathos in vigorous, supple modern English. This is a core book for any literary library. - Fagles's new version of Virgil's epic delicately melds the stately rhythms of the original to a contemporary cadence. Having previously produced well-received translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, he illuminates the poem's Homeric echoes while remaining faithful to Virgil's distinctive voice. Pious Aeneas, passionate Dido, and raging Turnus are driven by the desires and rivalries of the gods--but even the gods recognize their obeisance to fate, and to the foretold Roman Empire that will produce Augustus, Virgil's patron. The excellent introduction, by Bernard Knox, gives historical and literary context, and both Knox and Fagles convincingly argue the epic's continuing relevance. Fagles, writing of Virgil's sense of the price of empire, notes that it seems to be a price we keep on paying, in the loss of blood and treasure, time-worn faith and hard-won hope, down to the present day. - The New Yorker ...there's a capaciousness to Fagles's line well suited to this vast story's ebb and flow. Aeneas is a storm-tossed man-the epic opens with shipwreck on the coast of Africa-and Fagles renders the pilgrimage in cadences that are encompassing without feeling cluttered. -The New York Times - Brad Leithauser A new and noble standard bearer . . . There's a capriciousness to Fagles's line well suited to this vast story's ebb and flow. - The New York Times Book Review 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. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - Publishers Weekly The founding of Rome and the maturation of a hero who has greatness thrust upon him are the subjects of Virgil's first-century (b.c.) epic, newly available in Princeton scholar Fagles's energetic verse translation. It succeeds Fagles's critically acclaimed and very popular English-language renderings of Homer's the Iliad and the Odyssey, the touchstones that preceded and inspired Virgil (the Latin poet's hero Aeneas in fact makes a brief appearance in the Iliad). In 12 Books containing nearly 10,000 lines of unrhymed verse hexameters (i.e., six stresses per line), Virgil tells of the endangered voyages of Aeneas's fleet of ships following the devastation of the Trojan War; his dalliance with Queen Dido of Carthage, and the abandonment of her that adds the scorned monarch's lethal rage to that of (Aeneas's nemesis) the offended goddess Juno; the hero's journey to the underworld and reunion with the ghost of his father Anchises (one of classical literature's imperishable scenes); and a litany of the deeds and sufferings of noble Romans that expands into a prophetic vision of a glorious future. Veteran scholar Bernard Knox's replete introduction brilliantly summarizes the poem's provenance, meanings and influence. And a Translator's Postscript both emphasizes and illustrates [Virgil's] unequaled blend of grandeur and accessibility . . . of eloquence and action, heroics and humanity. Fagles varies the hexameter pattern ingeniously, condensing to five stresses, or expanding to seven, depending on the desired rhetorical or emotional effect (e.g., the dank night is sweeping down from the sky / and the setting stars incline our heads to sleep)-and demonstrates his talents smashingly inscenes set in The Kingdom of the Dead (where, amid sulphurous sound and fury, we hear . . . a crescendo of wailing, / ghosts of infants weeping, robbed of their share / of this sweet life, at its very threshold too). Homer's deserved primacy makes us often forget that Virgil is in many ways his equal. Fagles's triumphant new achievement makes us remember it. - Kirkus Reviews