Georgics (Oxford World’s Classics) by Virgil (PDF)

Description

A countryman cleaves earth with his crooked plough. Such is the labourof his life. So he sustains his native land …’Virgil’s affectionate poem of the land does not admit brief excerpts, any more than the labour of the farmer can easily be shortened. His verse, descriptive and narrative, brings us the disappointments as well as the rewards of the countryman’s year-round devotion to his crops, his vines and olives, livestock great and small, and the complex society of bees. Part agricultural manual, part political poem and allegory, the Georgics’ scenes are real and vivid, and the poet-farmerPeter Fallon makes us feel the sights, sounds, and textures of the ancient Italian landscape.’the combination of truth to the words Virgil wrote, natural vernacular speech and a general at-homeness on the land make Fallon’s an inspired translation’ Seamus Heaney, Irish Times’magnificent new translation…Fallon is the perfect translator for the Georgics’ Bernard O’Donoghue, Times Literary SupplementABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Virgil, a Roman poet who lived over 2000 years ago, writes with the same passion and vigor as Shakespeare. However, Virgil’s language is Latin and his subject is country life. Peter Fallon presents this new translation of Virgil’s Georgics. He calls the work, “a hymn to peace and people.” The Georgics contains four small books. This entire edition – complete with introduction, translator’s notes and line notes to help modern readers through the many references to Greek and Roman mythology – runs a mere hundred pages. Book I covers farming topics that range from crop rotation and when to fallow fields, to seed saving and developing a weather eye. Virgil suggests that “if the goddess of the dawn rises wanly from her consort’s saffron couch, beware …” This ancient advice sounds similar to weather guidance I learned as a teen on the New England Coast. “Red sun at dawning, sailors take warning.” Book I ends with an eternal description of war and its effects on agriculture “For right and wrong are mixed up here, there’s so much warring everywhere, evil has so many faces, and there is no regard for the labors of the plough….scythes and sickles have been hammered into weapons of war.” Virgil devotes Book II to the cultivation of grapes and olives while Book III discusses the breeding and care of domesticated animals. Virgil devotes Book IV to the keeping of bees. He encourages his reader to consider bees “a small society comprising systems worthy of our high esteem.” He then describes the perfect site for a hive. It must be protected from winds, close to a tree-lined stream that provides shade and water. Near the hive “let all around be gay with … spreads of fragrant thyme and masses of aromatic savory. Let there be gardens to amuse them with the scent of brightly colored flowers.” Closely observing the habits of the hive, the author states that bees “mindful that winter follows … set to work in summer and store what they acquire for the common good. Come night, the youngsters haul themselves back home, exhausted, leg-baskets loaded down with thyme.” Some would say that Virgil’s verses, dense with out-of-date politics and mythology, is irrelevant to our modern lives. But I take a gardener’s point of view here. In the garden, the presence of weeds does not mean the absence of flowers. Georgics is a book to savor after a hard day’s work in garden or field. When the air becomes still and the hammock beckons, open to find how your life matches that of an ancient peer. And heed his sage advice. “The farmer’s chores come round in seasons and cycles, as the earth each year retraces its own tracks…. So cast no hungry eye on a big estate if you’re inclined, but tend a small one.”

⭐Peter Fallon’s translation seems anything but stilted–earthy, colorful, rhythmical, it is sheer delight.I wasn’t sure at first whether a long didactic poem on agriculture would be gripping, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading the “Georgics.” Many of Virgil’s images and descriptions of nature are meltingly beautiful, and the deeper philosophical stratum of this work produces a constant intellecutal tension–ultimately, this poem investigates to what extent “the good life” is possible in this world, what is the balance between good and evil, to what extent our good efforts and labors are rewarded, how we are to position ourselves spiritually in this ambiguous, hard-to-understand universe… From an ecological standpoint, Virgil examines how we are to relate and live in harmony with our environment. Many mythological stories are woven in, and Peter Fallon’s notes help one understand historical and mythological allusions without any problem. The poem really is just brimming over with interesting content, and reading it to me felt like an utterly pleasurable meditative exercise. And I am truly grateful to Fallon for bringing this poem to me in a wonderfully “natural” and vivid translation, the best translation of the “Georgics” that I have been able to find.I read the “Georgics” partly in order to understand Willa Cather’s novels better, which allude to and are deeply influenced by this poem. Her works truly cannot be fully understood without a clear awareness of the Virgilian subtext. The “Georgics” are a supremely influential work of literature and should be read by anyone wishing to gain an in-depth understanding of the Western literary tradition.

⭐I have bought the kindle version of Georgics (Oxford World’s Classics) for $7.24 and shocked to find out that the format of the kindle book is defective (sometimes unable to turn the pages, and also the format / lines of the poem is irregular from page to page). At first I think the problem is caused by unsuccessful download, so I tried to get a refund and then bought the book later after few days. Unluckily the problem remained the same. This kindle book is defective in quality! Later I tried to cancel it for a refund but unsuccessful (maybe past 7 days), so I have to cancel this defective kindle book from my library, causing a loss of $7.24 immediately. I hope that you will not commit the same mistake. Also, I think Oxford has a responsibility to correct the format problem of this ebook before they put it on Amazon website for sale.

⭐Great translation but really boring book. But I bought it for school so what could I really expect

⭐Very pleased with order.

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