Vergil The Poet's Life

<b>A biography of Vergil, Rome's greatest poet, by the acclaimed translator of the <i>Aeneid</i></b> <p><b>&quot;Ms. Ruden has converted the writer of the <i>Aeneid</i> from a noble and stodgy 'ancient' into our contemporary . . . persuasively re-imagined [as] a sympathetic, three-dimensional figure. . . . The existence of the <i>Aeneid</i> is cause for gratitude. So is Ms. Ruden's sensitive, celebratory portrait of its maker.&quot;--Willard Spiegelman, </b><i><b>Wall Street Journal</b></i> <p> The <i>Aeneid </i>stands as a towering work of Classical Roman literature and a gripping dramatization of the best and worst of human nature. In the process of creating this epic poem, Vergil (70-19 BCE) became the world's first media celebrity, a living legend. <p> But the real Vergil is a shadowy figure; we know that he was born into a modest rural family, that he led a private and solitary life, and that, in spite of poor health and unusual emotional vulnerabilities, he worked tirelessly to achieve exquisite new effects in verse. Vergil's most famous work, the <i>Aeneid</i>, was commissioned by the emperor Augustus, who published the epic despite Vergil's dying wish that it be destroyed. <p> Sarah Ruden, widely praised for her translation of the <i>Aeneid</i>, uses evidence from Roman life and history alongside Vergil's own writings to make careful deductions to reconstruct his life. Through her intimate knowledge of Vergil's work, she brings to life a poet who was committed to creating something astonishingly new and memorable, even at great personal cost.</p></p></p></p>