by Virgil
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Product Description
Aeneas flees the ashes of Troy to found the city of Rome and change forever the course of the Western world--as literature as well. Virgil's Aeneid is as eternal as Rome itself, a sweeping epic of arms and heroism--the searching portrait of a man caught between love and duty, human feeling and the force of fate--that has influenced writers for over 2,000 years. Filled with drama, passion, and the universal pathos that only a masterpiece can express. The Aeneid is a book for all the time and all people.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Makes the Aeneid Come to Life, 2007-09-10
I have read all or parts of several versions of The Aeneid, including the highly praised Robert Fagles's and Robert Fitzgerald's versions. Mandelbaum's translation is far superior. He takes the reader into the epic's action without sacrificing the Latin of the original. His version is lively and the reader will (or should) have no difficulty reading the Aeneid to the conclusion. He will be carried along by the poetry and the subject matter of this great epic. Highly recommended.
9 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
 Grotesque parody of Virgil, 2007-06-07
Every two or three years some semi-educated American Classics professor trots out another translation of Virgil or Homer - these being the last two Classical poets that anyone can be prevailed upon to read, even in translation. It was much the same in the nineteenth century, except that back then every educated person understood more or less what metre was and how poetry differed from prose. In America at least the educated are no longer at all sure what metre or poetry are, and 'poets' apparently just sit down and scrawl out some prose that they think sounds vaguely poetical. Occasionally they will even chop up their prose into 'verses' of more or less equal length.
Noted reviewers can be prevailed upon by the publishers to give blurbs to these American professors' abominable travesties of Virgil or Homer, and the poor ignorant masses read this stuff in college. A few - a VERY few - are even impressed by these translations, God help them.
I remember a class I was in where everyone groaned about how aweful Mandelbaum's Virgil was. The consensus was Virgil must have been a very second-rate poet. I was the only student that knew Latin - I had been studying it since the age of eight. I tried to tell my fellows that Virgil was at least as interesting as Spenser or Shakespeare, and much more beautiful, but no one believed me.
I will say however that Mandelbaum is not the worst of the lot. To split your sides laughing, try Fagles, who converts Virgil into low buffoonery. Fagles by the way, had not studied Latin for decades when he made his translation - apparently he never read Latin for pleasure. And he presumed to translate the Aeneid! Enough said.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Reader-Friendly Version of the Classic, 2007-03-21
First, I'm not qualified to opine on whether Mandelbaum's translation is true to the Latin. I struggled with Virgil's complex poetry as a 4th year Latin student and have no idea if Mandelbaum gets it right. But this translation is eminently readable, retaining the feel of epic poetry. I have the feeling that any flaws in Mandelbaum's rendering reflect shortcomings in Virgil's original text.
Second, this is a very handy edition, especially for the price. Even if you already own the Aeneid in other form, you might want to pick this one up. It is a pocket-sized paperback, yet the print is not tiny and is very readable. This is a better edition to bring with you on the plane than one of the bulkier versions. Plus, this edition provides an excellent glossary, which is an absolute must given the torrent of names that flow through this work.
Finally, the Aeneid itself: Virgil is a literary titan, if only for his Georgics. The Aeneid is also a towering work, but troubling and flawed. Virgil himself was troubled by this work, which he left unfinished with instructions for it to be destroyed. In his effort to give Rome its own epic, combining features of both the Odyssey and Iliad to create the Aeneid, Virgil adopted some of the less interesting mannerisms of those older works. In particular, the battle scenes are violent, soaked in blood, long on smashed brains and decapitations and dripping entrails, short on exploring the pathos of life cut short for the sake of pointless conflict. It reads much like the Iliad, with seemingly endless lines of "A slew B and C slew D and E slew F." Maybe this was good stuff to an ancient Roman but to a modern reader it is boring in the same way as all the "begats" in some books of the Bible. Even more disturbing than the over-the-top, repetitive violence of the work is the sense of underlying pessimism, as every time reason and peace seem about to prevail, some god or goddess shakes things up and -- all too easily -- the killing starts anew. Maybe this reflected Virgil's own disgust with the times that he had lived through, with civil war erupting every few years until Octavian had finally killed off every other rival. But the rivers of blood that are spilled in the second half of the Aeneid do not make for as ennobling a foundation myth as perhaps Virgil was looking for. While Rome is destined for greatness, it is so because Jupiter has said so, has decided to favor Aeneas above his enemies, not because of anything inherently great about the proto-Romans. Maybe, had Virgil lived longer, he might have found a way to tweak this work to have Aeneas end up as more than just an executioner for Fate.
And it is in the first half of the epic that Aeneas indeed is more than just a slayer. His romance with Dido is perhaps the most famous story within the poem and, although it is also marred by too much Olympian meddling, portrays Aeneas as possessing humanity and a capacity to love that is missing at the end. His descent into Hades, so that he can have one last conversation with his father, is also a compelling episode. In short, the Aeneid stands as a great work, a classic, for these beautiful passages, even if the last few books of the poem read a little like someone trying to narrate the events in a violent video game.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The Aeneid of Virgil (Bantam Classics), 2007-03-08
I consider the primary difficulty in studying The Aeneid to be the introduction of more than 250 proper names in the first three books. This Bantam Classic includes the best glossary I have found in any translation or commentary. The Mandelbaum translation is also the one quoted by Professor Elizabeth Vandiver in her lectures "The Aeneid of Virgil" published by The Teaching Company.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!, 2006-12-16
With Robert Fagles's version of 'The Aeneid' just released, I thought that would be the version I would be reading. I tried Robert Fitzgerald's version some years ago, but I gave up after the 5th or 6th "book".
After reading the numerous glowing reviews for Allen Mandelbaum's translation, I thought I would give it a shot.... plus it cost a lot less than Fagles's! I was not disappointed.
Mr. Mandelbaum's take on Virgil's epic is eminently accessible, very easy to understand (but not dumbed down at all). The glossary at the end is a huge help in identifying characters and places (as many of them go by more than one name).
This is a thrilling tale full of adventure, romance, war, friendship and loyalty. If you buy only one version, this is the one to get.
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