PENGUIN The Aeneid

The prose translation is good, but Virgil’s own writing might make it seem like it drones on and on , not to mention his endless praising in some points, long listing of names that dont have any interest in prose. I skipped such section and after the half way point the story itself gets uninteresting, which are Virgil’s own creation of the story of the founding of the Roman race. All the books before book six where he borrow from mythology are much better. The Roman boot licking gets too much I never finished after book 10.

I wish I could pretend that I was high brow and appreciated this classic, but it was all lost on me. I couldn't get into it. It was just a rambling story that seemed to constantly introduce new characters and elements. Maybe this makes sense to people who know the entire Greco-Roman pantheon down to every last nymph and myth and therefore get all of the references. Also, I suspect in the original form of poetry was what made it a classic in Latin, but I don't think poetry can be translated.

My granddaughter loves this book…

Written to praise Augustus and link the Claudio-Julian family to the Trojans it is nevertheless a masterpiece and beautifully constructed. I have never read the original, my loss, but the Rieu translation is a classic that seems not to dumb down the original.

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.