Virgil Book Reviews

Virgil by Peter Levi Book Summary

Peter Levi teases a remarkably vivid life from Virgil's poems, a life-long study of poetry and the few facts that have come down to us through Suetonius.

Born in 70 BC, in a small village near Mantua, Publius Vergilius Maro - Virgil - grew up to be hailed as the greatest Roman poet. And although his work has influenced Western literature for two millennia, little is known about the man himself. Who was the man who created The Aeneid - one of the most important poems in Western literature - and such universal phrases as 'love conquers all' and 'fortune favours the bold'?
In this highly acclaimed, now classic biography, the eminent classicist Peter Levi uses Virgil's poems, like the Eclogues, Georgics, and his epic, The Aeneid, as well as historical and archaeological evidence, to discard many of the myths surrounding Virgil's life. In doing so, he uncovers the life of a poet whose powerful imagination and ethereal ability helped shape the epic vision of modern man.

Virgil's densely written and beautifully complex verse dominated Augustan Rome, the period of unprecedented prosperity, peace, and expansion that inaugurated the Golden Age of Roman poetry. Virgil was the one poet who most fully understood the Roman Empire's enduring legacy and through his poetry defined the idea of civilization for generations to come.

Although contemporary critics and readers often overlook Virgil's genius, Levi demonstrates that to neglect Virgil is to truncate many of the literary foundations of our culture.

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