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Summary: Not the best book I've ever read
Review: Like many people reviewing this book, I read the Aeneid for a 10th grade English class. On the surface, it's easy to see why this book has been famous for centuries: it explains the glory of the founding of Rome, puts Virgil in many struggles (e.g., to leave Troy, to leave Juno, to embark on a dangerous journey), and models itself after other acclaimed epics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey.However, at a more specific level, the Aeneid gets very repetitive. The long, formal speeches seem to have little significance and the battles in the latter half of the book involve little more than soldier after soldier getting killed. While formal speeches and delaying of the ending are fundamental epic "conventions," other books like the Odyssey are much less repetitive. Also, there is nothing particularly astounding about Fitzgerald's translation. The enjambed blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) gives little poetic effect while making the syntax very awkward. In short, this was not one of the best books I've ever read, and it left me continually losing my concentration.
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Summary: Careful with translations.
Review: Please take care when reading the latin to english translations of the Aeneid. Some of the meaning can be lost in the translaton, but many editions have footnotes in various places. Read those footnotes, and their sources and you shall gain a wider understanding of hte true meaning I sought to convey. Enjoy!
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Summary: The "other" side of the Trojan war
Review: Publius Vergilius Maro was commisioned by Caesar Augustus to author a national epic for Rome. The work which Virgil composed for this purpose was the Aeneid. It is an epic poem that tells the story of a minor character from Homer's Iliad who leads a rag-tag band from the smouldering ruins of Troy in order to found a "New Troy" to the west: Rome. It is in the Aeneid, not the Iliad (as most people who have not read the works tend to believe) that we see the spectacle of the Trojan Horse & the famous line "I do not trust Greeks bearing gifts." The Iliad ends with the death of Hektor - before the plan of the Trojan Horse is devised by Odysseus. The Odyssey picks up after the sack of Troy. The Aeneid fills in the gaps & narrates the story of the few Trojans who escape the wrath of the Greeks. According to legend, Romulus & Remes (the two brothers who eventually founded the city itself) were descendents of Aeneas. As is usual, Fitzgerald's translation is top notch. I have read Mandelbaum's rendition as well & much prefer Mr. Fitzgerald. The book also contains a useful glossary & postscript which help elucidate the allusions to Hannibal & Cleopatra which the Romans of Virgil's day would have picked up right away, but which might be unfamiliar to modern day readers. Also, it is HIGHLY recommended that one read the Iliad & the Odyssey before embarking on Virgil's work. The reviewer Kane is obviously unfamiliar with what is "going on" here & that makes his review rather irrelevant. But, for a quick answer: the reason that Juno (Hera in the Greek) has a vendetta against Aeneas is due to the fact that he is Trojan. This all derives from the judgment of Paris when Juno was "jilted" by the bribe that Aphrodite offered Paris (also a Trojan). To offer any more info at this point would be too great of a digression, but what I will say is that this work is NOT (I repeat NOT) for someone to merely pick up & dive into w/out doing his or her pre-requisite reading. Do your homework, become familiar with the myths & tales of what has gone on before, then read the Aeneid. You will be glad you did, for this is an extraordinary epic. Also, for those who harbor the ambition, the university of Oxford professor Peter Levi has recently written a wonderful, succinct biography of Virgil. "The Death Of Virgil" by Hermann Broch is a mind-blowing masterpiece as well. Indeed, one can never get enough Virgil.
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Summary: Aeneas is the Man
Review: Robert Fitzgerald takes this Trojan-saga Rubix Cube and spins it to coordination with ease. For the average 17-year old high school senior, this story shouldn't be so easy to read, much less as compelling and entertaining as it was. I didn't find Fitzgerald's translation the least bit difficult to comprehend or enjoy. You can't help but agree, after finishing the story, that Aeneas is The Man.
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Summary: Poetic justice
Review: Robert Fitzgerald's translation of the Aeneid is the best contemporary poetic translation of the poem. While prose translations are more faithful to the Latin (and Fitzgerald's certainly deviates from the original Latin in places), poetic translations have a chance to capture in some way the "feel" of Virgil's poem. Fitzgerald's translation does convey the grandeur of the Latin into English without sounding too Latin (e.g., C. Day Lewis' translation) or wooden (e.g., Mandelbaum's translation). Accessible to the nonspecialist, and a pleasure to any reader, Fitzgerald's Aeneid brings the Roman poem to the English speaking audience with grace and dignity.
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Summary: Poor translation of a great work
Review: Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Aeneid, while highly acclaimed, is a very low fidelity translation. Fitzgerald shows throughout the translation that he is an excellent writter, poet, etc. However, as a translator, his work is much below what I would have hoped. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald seems to have decided that Vergil was not as great a writer as himself in any way, because he blatantly ignores the Latin in his translation. While one would expect all translators to interpret The Aeneid in a different way, one should NOT expect them to completely paraphrase, cut out words, and add many extra ones to a quality translation, like Fitzgerald has. If you are not using this translation and comparing it to the original Latin, than this is a great read. However, if you are looking for a translation that holds high regard for the words of Vergil, look elsewhere, because Fitzgerald seeks not to translate the Aeneid, but to rewrite it as his own work.
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Summary: I sing of a great translation...
Review: Roman society was enamoured of Greek culture -- many of the best 'Roman' things were Greek; the major gods were derivative of the Greek pantheon; philosophy, literature, science, political ideals, architecture -- all this was adopted from the Greeks. It makes sense that, at the point of their ascendancy in the world, they would long for an epic history similar to the Homeric legends; the Iliad and the Odyssey, written some 500 years after the actual events they depict, tell of the heroism of the Greeks in their battle against Troy (Ilium). The Aeneid, written by Vergil 700 years after Homer, at the commission of Augustus (himself in the process of consolidating his authority over Rome), turns the heroic victory of the much-admired Greeks on its head by postulating a survivor from Troy, Aeneas, who undergoes as journey akin to the Odyssey, even further afield. Vergil constructs Aeneas, a very minor character in the Iliad, as the princely survivor and pilgrim from Troy, on a journey through the Mediterranean in search of a new home. According to Fitzgerald, who wrote a brief postscript to the poem, Vergil created a Homeric hero set in a Homeric age, purposefully following the Iliad and Odyssey as if they were formula, in the way that many a Hollywood director follows the formulaic pattern of past successful films. Vergil did not create the Trojan legend of Roman origins, but his poem solidified the notion in popular and scholarly sentiment. Vergil sets the seeds for future animosity between Carthage and Rome in the Aeneid, too -- the curse of queen Dido on the descendants of Aeneas of never-ending strife played into then-recent recollections of war in the Roman mind. Books I through VI are much more studied than VII through XII, but the whole of the Aeneid is a spectacular tale. Fitzgerald's modern and accessible translation makes the Aeneid really come to life for modern readers. It is a verse translation, not forced into word-by-word construction nor into false, flowery and stuffy structured verse that would seem formal and distant. This is a language familiar to modern readers, just as Vergil's Latin would have been readily accessible to the listeners and readers of his time. Vergil died before he could complete the story. He wished it to be burned; fortunately, Augustus had other ideas. Still, there are incomplete lines and thoughts, and occasional conflicts in the storyline that one assumes might have been worked out in the end, had more editing time been available. Despite these, the Aeneid remains a masterpiece, and Fitzgerald's translation will be a standard bearer for some time to come.
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Summary: Aeneas' Great Adventure
Review: Speaking from a student's point of view, I think this book is challenging yet engaging. I am required to read this book by my A.P. English teacher. But if I wasn't required to read it, I still might read it if someone just told me that it was an adventure. I am hooked on adventure and this book has something for everyone in that department!
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Summary: Great Story, Great Translation
Review: The Aeneid is the least known of the classical triumvirate of the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid. Some parts are boring, but overall it has a great story. It's basically How Aeneus fled Troy after it's fall to find New Troy, or more commonly known as a little city called Rome. Also, many have ignored the great battle scenes of books 6-12. This is really where the story of the Trojan horse comes from and the phrase "don't trust Greeks bearing gifts" (actually, it's really supposed to be: "Even when Greeks bring gifts, I fear them, gifts and all!") This is the best translation there is, Fitzgerald is a master.
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Summary: An Interior Work
Review: The Aeneid the final work resultant of the Illiad, ties the foundation of rome to the mythic hero of Troy, Aeneas. Juno (Hera) carries on her passionate hatred of Troy on to the few survivors guided by Aeneas.
The Aeneid is probably the least of the works of the Illiad trilogy, the Illiad the greates, the Odyssey just below, and the Aeneid the least, but the least of some very good work.
The Aeneid written by Virgil, is distinctly different from the others written by Homer. Homer's work while complex, is still on a grand scale, with broad strokes, but does so as brilliantly as an other works in the same category.
The Aeneid can truly be appreciated by the level of introspection that Virgil brings to the trilogy, there is more investigation of the interior life of a hero, and of those around him.
The most dynamic passages are the early ones concerning Dido, and Aeneas' final battle to secure the future Rome. The Aeneid stops mid-sentence, but does not leave you unsatisfied. There is a sensitivity in the Aeneid which saves the work, but does not elevate it to the level of its father, the Illiad.
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