Latin Literature: An Anthology (Penguin Classics) by Michael Grant (PDF)

Description

A classic introduction to Latin literature, with translations of the best passages from Virgil, Livy, Ovid, Seneca and many others.This classic anthology traces the development of Latin literature from the early Republican works of Cicero and Catullus, to the writers of the Empire such as Lucan and Petronius, to the later writings of St Augustine. The selections cover comedy and epic, history and philosophy, in prose and in verse, and each passage is prefaced by an introduction to the author and his influence. The translators range across history from Alexander Pope and Lord Byron to contemporaries. The result is a broad and brilliant overview of the civilization of Rome and its Empire – an ideal introduction to Latin literature.Michael Grant was born in 1914. He served as an intelligence officer during the Second World War, and subsequently held academic posts at the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Khartoum and Belfast. Over his lifetime, he published nearly fifty books on the ancient world, ranging from studies of Roman coinage, to biographies of Caesar, Nero and Jesus, to books on Ancient Israel and the Middle Ages. Many of his translations were published in Penguin Classics. Professor Grant moved to Italy in 1966, where he spent most of the rest of his life until his death in 2004.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐Wonderful!

⭐Easy to read. Full of poetry! Good for readers of all ages.

⭐Some civilization is good for us.

⭐Font is very small

⭐There is a maxim: unless one feasts on the culture of the past five thousand years, one subsists on iron-rations. What with the onset of the latter-day barbarians, classicism is marginal. As such, one can no longer afford to sneer at anthologies.The volume in question, a Penguin Classic, was compiled by the great populariser of Rome: Michael Grant. A wide range of authors are represented, from the earliest days of the Republic (Plautus and Terence) to the late Fourth Century AD when strange gods were ascendant and twilight was befalling the Empire. Spurning his own skills as a translator, Grant draws upon the services of Milton, Dryden, Pope, Johnson, Stevenson, Housman, Graves and Pater. Grant’s selection of authors is judicious. Each of them is graced with an introduction and a survey of notable translations to date. Petronius is included. The space that was allocated to Quintilian could have been given to Ammianus Marcellinus with profit. To illustrate the quality of this tome, I quote Catullus 101 as translated by H W Garrod in 1912. The poem itself was written c 57 – 56 BC when Catullus travelled to the East on the staff of Gaius Memmius, Governor of Bithynia, and paid a visit to his brother’s grave.Over the mighty world’s highwayCity by city, sea by sea,Brother, thy brother comes to payPitiful offerings unto thee.I only ask to grace thy bierWith gifts that only give farewellTo tell to ears that cannot hearThe things that it is vain to tell.And, idly communing with dust,To know thy presence still denied,And ever mourn forever lost,A soul that never should have diedYet think not wholly vain todayThis fashion that our fathers gaveThat hither brings me, here to laySome gift on sorrow on thy grave.Take, brother, gifts a brother’s tearsBedewed with sorrow as they fell,And `Greetings’ to the end of yearsAnd to the end of years `Farewell!’This is a wonderful anthology. It has nothing to do with Apple or Google. It’s no worse off for that.

⭐Really enjoyable compilation of different authors from the Roman Republic and later Empire. The translations all flow really well so that the ideas, as complex as they are sometimes, are lucidly expressed. The translations are from different centuries so it is interesting how different eras grapple with the material.

⭐A very good range of styles and literary genres. Excellent value.

⭐Wordsworth and the Duddon

⭐The Pedestrian, Wordsworth

⭐Great anthology of Roman and Latin writings

⭐Perfect condition. Recent edition, 2015.

Keywords

Free Download Latin Literature: An Anthology (Penguin Classics) in PDF format
Latin Literature: An Anthology (Penguin Classics) PDF Free Download
Download Latin Literature: An Anthology (Penguin Classics) 2015 PDF Free
Latin Literature: An Anthology (Penguin Classics) 2015 PDF Free Download
Download Latin Literature: An Anthology (Penguin Classics) PDF
Free Download Ebook Latin Literature: An Anthology (Penguin Classics)