Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144769 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780300151411
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Robert Fagles, shortly before his death, set the bar very high for translating [Virgil's] Aeneid. Yet already the scholar-poet Sarah Ruden has soared over the bar. . . The translation is alive in every part. . . . This is the first translation since Dryden's that can be read as a great English poem in itself."-Garry Wills, New York Review of Books (Garry Wills New York Review of Books 20080501)

"Ruden''s translation separates itself from others by using the same number of verses as Vergil does. She has produced a fresh poetic translation for contemporary English-speaking readers, one that speaks with its own voice."-David Quint, author of Cervantes''s Novel of Modern Times: A New Reading of "Don Quijote" (David Quint 20081001)

"Sarah Ruden''s translation is distinguished by the quality of its verse, the unrelenting propulsive force of its narrative drive, and the intelligence with which she has shaped Vergil to fit her pentameter lines."-Charles Martin, translator, Metamorphoses: A New Translation (Charles Martin 20081103)

"Grace and power reside in Sarah Ruden's economical line-for-line translation of The Aeneid. Like Vergil's Latin, her English may easily be lifted off the page and given voice."-Janet Lembke, translator of Virgil's Georgics (Janet Lembke 20081201)

"Toning down the magniloquence, Sarah Ruden gives us an Aeneid more intimate in tone and soberer in measure than we are used to-a gift for which many will be grateful."-J.M. Coetzee (J.M. Coetzee 20081207)

"By conveying the emotional force of the Latin, Ruden makes the Aeneid newly vivid, exciting, and relevant. This translation proves why, for centuries, Virgil''s remarkable epic has been required reading."-Mary Lefkowitz, author of Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn From Myths (Mary Lefkowitz 20080501)

"Fast, clean, and clear, sometimes terribly clever, and often strikingly beautiful. . . . Epigrammatic statements that lose their punch in more diffuse translations are virtually always preserved by Ruden with immense profit to the impact in English. . . . Ruden has found ingenious solutions to echo some of Virgil''s great sound effects-solutions I''ve not seen in other translations, prose or verse. . . . The tone is pitch perfect. Ruden''s English remains remarkably free from convolution. What is happening, who is speaking, and who is doing what to whom is always clear. For me, hers is the cleanest of modern verse translations. . . . Many human achievements deserve our praise, and this excellent translation is certainly one of them."-Richard Garner, The New Criterion (Richard Garner The New Criterion 20090312)

"An intimate rendering of great emotional force and purity. . . . The immediacy, beauty, and timelessness of the original Latin masterpiece lift off these pages with gem-like originality. . . . Highly recommended. All readers, all levels."-Choice (Choice 20090201)

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2008. (Outstanding Academic Title Choice )

Selected as one of the Favorite Books of 2008 on Mr. Wilson''s Bookshelf/Books & Culture (Mr. Wilson's Bookshelf Books & Culture )

"A welcome and interesting addition to the volumes of Virgil scholarship."-Chris Hedges, Philadelphia Inquirer (Chris Hedges Philadelphia Inquirer )

"Fast, clean, and clear, sometimes terribly clever, and often strikingly beautiful. . . . For me, hers is the cleanest of modern verse translations."-Richard Garner, The New Criterion (Richard Garner The New Criterion )

"Robert Fagles, shortly before his death, set the bar very high for translating [Vergil's] Aeneid. Yet already the scholar-poet Sarah Ruden has soared over the bar. . . . The translation is alive in every part. . . . This is the first translation since Dryden's that can be read as a great English poem in itself."-Garry Wills, New York Review of Books (Garry Wills New York Review of Books )

". pellucid and propulsive - limpidly austere in its diction and dynamic in its narrative speed . Ruden, not just an esteemed classicist herself, but a poet of considerable skill, has chosen boldly. Her work is that rarity: a line-for-line rendition of Virgil's epic in English that declares ten syllables a fit match for the Aeneid's hexameters . [Ruden's] diction is almost unfailingly chaste (as Auden described Frost's), and the great clarity and force this lends her translation are evident everywhere . I cannot stress strongly enough Ruden's skill with near-Swinburnean sound effects . Ruden has taken the pentameter plunge and gambled that a line-for-line account of Virgil's Aeneid can be made . [She] has won her wager." - Len Krisak, Translation and Literature, Volume 18 (Len Krisak Translation and Literature, Volume 18 )

". . . The translation is alive in every part. . . . [T]he first translation since Dryden's that can be read as a great English poem in itself."- Garry Wills, New York Review of Books (Garry Wills New York Review of Books )

". . . Ruden . . . a poet of considerable skill, has chosen boldly. Her work is . . . [a] rarity. . . . I cannot stress strongly enough Ruden's skill with near-Swinburnean sound effects . . ." - Len Krisak, Translation and Literature, Volume 18 (Len Krisak Translation and Literature )

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Sweeping, Poignant, Faithful. Forget Fagles.
I have been a student of the classics since I was young. Naturally, I had been exposed to the Aeneid early on in the fashion that most students are: with the revered Robert Fitzgerald translation. Through the years many translations, both good and bad, have been published: Humphries, Lombardo (probably one of the best), and Mandelbaum to name a few of the most popular.

My adoration of the Ruden translation started in the most modest way. I was browsing through volumes in a used book store and came across the Yale University Press publication of the Aeneid, a translation that I had not heard of, from a translator I knew nothing about. I hopped on the internet while in the store and did some research, and came up with almost unanimously positive reviews, so I purchased it after reading a few, impressive passages.

Currently, all the rage is over the Penguin translation by Robert Fagles. To my understanding, his is the translation most widely taught in schools next to Fitzgerald. I am a fan of Fagles. His storytelling is grand and vivid. However, anyone who is versed in Classical Latin and has read the Aeneid in its original language can tell you that Fagles takes far too many liberties, embellishing Vergil's epic very subjectively (and not sparingly). This is problem to those who want a faithful reading of Vergil. Fagle's is far from a faithful translation of Vergil's poetry. Latin is a very compact, concise, and flowing language, with many subtle nuances. It is not grandiose and cumbersome like Fagles.

But Sarah Ruden has done something uncanny here. It is a popular saying that "one cannot translate poetry," which is true. It is inevitable that when translating poetry, much of the vigor and hidden meanings are lost. But Ruden's is the closest to the original one can get in modern English idiom. She avoids the flowery embellishments that Fagles is guilty of, preserves the conciseness of Vergil's Latin, without sacrificing the elegance of her or Vergil's pens (Ruden is, after all, an accomplished poet from what I understand). And, even more laudable, is the fact the Ruden's is practically a line-by-line translation, using the exact same number of lines used by Vergil. She also has a talent for preserving Vergil's meter whenever possible. The Aeneid, to some theorists, was made to be orated and heard. And Ruden's is a translation that is a pleasure hear as well as read.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Ruden's Aeneid, I like to say that Ruden is to Fagles, as Chickering is to Heaney. Ruden's translation might not be as famous as Fagles', but it is more scholarly, more faithful, and elegant in a different, yet more authentic way (just as Chickering's Beowulf may never achieve the status of Heaney's, yet Chickering preserves the spirit of the original in a more convincing way.

Get Ruden's Aeneid! Whether you are a novice to Vergil's Aeneid, a casual reader (it is a relatively quick read), or a full-on Latinist/Classicist, you will not be dissatisfied with this text.

Incredible!
I am not a fan of Verse...I've always prefered Prose but I think this is the first time I actually fell in love with Verse!

Sarah Ruden's translation is absolutely incredible! I can't believe how powerful and exciting (not to mention poetic) it is!

It almost seems that it could have even been written in (high) English verse

After comparing multiple versions I have to say that it is perhaps the most faithful, epic and poetic translation I've come by written in Verse.

It ranks at the top together with Jackson Knight's and Stanley Lonbardo's translations.

Hats off to Sarah Ruden and all who read this magnificent version!

Ryan

The Aeneid
This is a great, fresh new translation of this favorite classic by Yale's Dr. Sarah Ruden. I first heard about it on PBS's Fresh Air, with Terry Gross. I am glad I was listening to the radio that afternoon on my one hour drive to work in Boston.

Best Aeneid translation since Alexander Pope's.