Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7711878 in Books
• Published on: 1931-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews

"Lesbia, mea puella"...the passion that destroyed Catullus'
When Gaius Valerius and Clodia met for the first time, he knew she would change his life. For the young poet it was the "coup de foudre"- love at first sight...but Lesbia, as he would call her later in the poems celebrating her beauty, was married to Metellus, a rich member of the senate, much older than her. And there was also Clodia's brother Clodius Pulcher whom the young woman loved passionately... And so begins the tragic love affair between Catullus and Clodia, who would destroy them both and leave nothing but tears, bitterness and pain...AND those wonderful poems, in which the feelings of a human heart have found their most intense expression that will last forever... It is not the deceived and broken man who died much too early who is remembered by history, but the young,passionate and great poet who loved his LESBIA, no matter what fate reserved to them... And no matter how Clodia has been seen through the eyes of her co-citizens and through the ages, as adulterous, vile and almost criminal, in these poems she will live on as Catull's "puella", his "girl", whom he loved till death...as he himself declared in one of his most wonderful verses: Odi et amo, quare id faciam fortasse requieris. Nescio sed fieri, senti et excrucior!

"that this love...shall...last forever"
"You, my life, promise that this love of ours between us shall be agreeable and last forever." It was not to be - Captivating, exciting and thrilling to the last page of the book, "Lesbia" takes the reader into Ancient Rome, into a time of intrigues, hate and passion, of falsity but also of true love. Catullus' feelings for Lesbia were all these, but there was also more: the discovery of a secret that will lead the reader to understand his mobiles much better, this poetry, that remains enthralling throughout the ages