Virgil, with more justification than any Greek, could be hailed as the father of Western Literature. His work has set a benchmark for excellence. Dante referred to Virgil as his Òmaster,Ó Dryden hailed VirgilÕs 'GeorgicsÕ as the perfect poem by the perfect poet. With the Aeneid, Virgil had set out to write another perfect poem, and almost succeeded. Its poetry communicates across the cultural barrier from a period which had made a science of oratory and banked its entire stock in learning and political persuasion on the fine art of oral delivery. I feel it still has an edge over our snazzy sound bites designed to titillate the 30 second attention span of hypnotized telly-junkies. Sustained arguments donÕt come as an ambush on your solar plexus. Nabokov called VirgilÕs poetry Òinsipid,Ó a curious verdict, coming from an admirer of Marcel Proust. But even Proust would have had a hard time had he tried to match VirgilÕs subtle art of low key effects. Virgil was an extremely shy person, afflicted by tuberculosis, a sly smirk under a peasantÕs heavy brow; he spoke with a rustic accent. Modern critics sometimes express disdain for passages in VirgilÕs work, that look like the adulations of a servile courtier. But the AeneidÕs eulogies on the Imperial regime never exceed the noncommittal deference of a peasant, who gives Caesar what is CaesarÕs, in order to be left unmolested, when he minds his own business. There are indications that after the upheavals in 23 BC. which had led to the downfall of VirgilÕs patron and friend, the poet felt increasingly under pressure. It speaks for enormous talent that his best work was written on commission and not merely a product of gratuitous choice. Virgil could accepted limitations and expanded his talent from within proscribed boundaries Ð how many artists, even of the very greatest, can actually do this? I have a profound respect for Dryden. His translation of VirgilÕs 'Georgics' has added to our language one of its great revelations. Dryden was a devoted admirer of Virgil, and a great scholar, but of a very different temperament. His era has been called the age of the baroque, a period of ornate exuberance and redundant rhetorics. Science was still little understood but it became fashionable to mention NewtonÕs laws and publicly to express a not entirely sincere snobbery in regard to superstition and pagan religions. So DrydenÕs most difficult task as a translator was not just to be faithful to the original, but to ferry VirgilÕs Aeneid across the cultural divide. There was little appreciation for the polish and subtlety of VirgilÕs style, and Dryden wouldnÕt lose his sleep over unashamed padding: ÒMeantime imperial Neptune heard the sound / Of raging billows breaking on the ground. / Displeas'd, and fearing for his wat'ry reign, / He rear'd his awful head above the main, // (and now the truly majestic touch:) // Serene in majesty; then roll'd his eyes / Around the space of earth, and seas, and skies.Ó One almost regrets that Virgil hadnÕt thought of it. He only wrote :ÒInterea magno misceri murmure pontum, / emissamque hiemem sensit Neptunus, et imis / stagna refusa vadis, graviter commotus; et alto / prospiciens, summa placidum caput extulit unda.Ó (Òmeantime great noise disturbed the sea, tossed forth a storm, stirred Neptune on the lowest floor, who, displacing waters of the deep, calmly raised his head above the highest waveÓ) which creates a powerful enough image, though not quite of DrydenÕs grandeur. But for his padding, Dryden more than compensates with his absolutely ingenious use of transpositions. Look how Virgil puts his thoughts in sequence: ÒThere was an ancient city, inhabited by Tyrian husbandmen, Carthage, that faces from afar Ostia at the TiberÕs mouth, of great wealth and most warlike in its enterprise and being dear, itÕs said, more than all the land to Juno, who even Samos held in less esteem. Here they kept her arms, here her chariot, and the goddess hatched designs and hopes for a capital of nations, should destiny permit. Yet surely she had heard that a race of Trojan issue was hereafter to overturn the Tyrian towers, a people born to rule and of warlike pride would lay waste her Lybia, according to destinies decree.Ó And now compare how Dryden inverted this sequence to squeeze into his rhyming couplets the same amount of information and even throw in an additional explanatory note: ÒAgainst the Tiber's mouth, but far away, / An ancient town was seated on the sea; / A Tyrian colony; the people made / Stout for the war, and studious of their trade: / Carthage the name; belov'd by Juno more / Than her own Argos, or the Samian shore. / Here stood her chariot; here, if Heav'n were kind, / The seat of awful empire she design'd. / Yet she had heard an ancient rumor fly, / (Long cited by the people of the sky,) / That times to come should see the Trojan race / Her Carthage ruin, and her tow'rs deface; / Nor thus confin'd, the yoke of sov'reign sway / Should on the necks of all the nations lay.Ó This is a piece of sure-footed vigor and a rousing good read, but misses on VirgilÕs slightly subdued and more reflective consideration of circumstances. VirgilÕs Aeneid is a great work of art. Neither HumphriesÕ nor MandelbaumÕs and especially not FitzgeraldÕs translation do it justice. If English is the only option, then Dryden is still a very agreeable compromise, even so it is a Virgil in disguise.

John Dryden's 1697 translation of Virgil's Ancient Roman epic "The Aeneid" is, after 300 years, still entertaining and edifying. For students of Restoration/18th Century literature, it is a shining example of the major poetic tradition of the age, Neoclassicism. Dryden, trying with his measured heroic couplets to recapture the high forms of the age of Augustus in Rome, appropriately translates the famous epic of Aeneas, founder of Rome.

"The Aeneid" takes up the Homeric tradition, beginning in the aftermath of "The Iliad" and the Trojan War. Aeneas, protected by his mother, the goddess Venus, is advised to flee Troy with the remaining Trojans. He has been fated to found a greater empire in Italy. Juno, queen of the gods, who supported Greece in the Trojan War, has recently heard that the descendants of Troy will destroy her new favourites in Carthage. All of this raises Juno's ire, and she manipulates men and nature in an effort to end the Trojan line. Through Juno's efforts, and in a manner similar to Homer's "Odyssey," the three day journey from Troy to Rome ends up taking many years.

Aeneas as a hero is a problematic figure. Though he is a skilled warrior and committed leader, his relationships with women are thoroughly troubled in "The Aeneid." In particular, his treatment of Carthage's Queen Dido and later the Trojan women is questionable. In addition, Aeneas has a tendency to let his introspection and attachment to ceremony draw him away from his people when they need his leadership the most. Often, though, these desperate situations allow the next generation, represented by Aeneas's son Ascanius, to shine in action scenes.

Aeneas's foes throughout the poem (Juno, Turnus) offer intense opposition to the wandering Trojans, emphasizing the amount of toil and suffering the Trojans had to endure to establish themselves in a new home and found a new empire. The great thing about Dryden's translation specifically is the way that Dryden dramatizes and references recent problems in England in the context of a Roman epic. In this context, look for references to fires, which are usually described as spreading like "contagion" or "plague." Dryden's personal knowledge of the plague and fire that tore London apart in 1665-6 are important subtexts in the translation. Aeneas and his "exiled" court also fit in with Dryden's concern as a Catholic with the Protestant Succession in the years after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. That Dryden's own historical period finds its way in these and other ways into his translation of the Roman epic are impressive and interesting.

Though the heroic couplet/triplet poetic style Dryden uses throughout his translation of "The Aeneid" can be initially difficult, it gradually becomes easier to read and follow. However, in the books dealing with battles, you will want to read slowly, to figure out just who is killing who. Frederick Keener's introduction to this Penguin Classics edition is very helpful, providing detailed explanations of Dryden's style and context. This edition also includes a glossary of names and a map of Aeneas's voyage, so that names that are introduced only briefly can be better understood. Overall, an excellent edition for reading or study.

The power and majesty of the English language is in all her glory in Dryden's incredible translation of Virgil's Aeneid. All the other translations seem pale beside it.

John Dryden's 1677 tragedy "All For Love" or "The World Well Lost" was based on William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra." This would be a minority opinion, but I really think this Restoration Drama is comparable to the Shakespeare version in many regards. Of course "borrowing" from Shakespeare cannot be considered much of a crime when the Bard of Avon appropriated so many plots from other dramatists as well. Shakespeare's play covers ten years in settings scattered across the eastern Mediterranean, while Dryden confines all of his events to one day in the Temple of Isis. For me the dramatic highpoint of the Dryden version is the ugly confrontation between Cleopatra and Octavia, Roman wife of Mark Antony, but I also like the final death scenes better than what we find in Shakespeare. Just do not ask me to explain how "All for Love" reflects Restoration sensibilities rather than the Elizabethan values of "Antony and Cleopatra." I first read this play and decided to use it as the final play in a mini-trilogy of one-act that used Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra" and Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," and had no problem given Dryden the anchor position. Certainly classes studying English drama can benefit by having students read both the Shakespeare and Dryden versions with an eye out towards better understanding the works of both playwrights. If you are only going to read one play by Dryden, then the only other choices besides this one would be "Aureng-Zebe," his last and best example of the heroic genre or his comedy masterpiece "Marriage a-la-mode." But I would still pick "All For Love."

Dryden's reworking of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" is a great read, especially if you didn't fully comprehend Shakespeare's work. Dryden's language is concise, and his portrayal of historical characters is excellent; especially considering that he had to follow Shakespeare's lead.

John Dryden's 1677 tragedy "All For Love" or "The World Well Lost" was based on William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra." This would be a minority opinion, but I really think this Restoration Drama is comparable to the Shakespeare version in many regards. Of course "borrowing" from Shakespeare cannot be considered much of a crime when the Bard of Avon appropriated so many plots from other dramatists as well. Shakespeare's play covers ten years in settings scattered across the eastern Mediterranean, while Dryden confines all of his events to one day in the Temple of Isis. For me the dramatic highpoint of the Dryden version is the ugly confrontation between Cleopatra and Octavia, Roman wife of Mark Antony, but I also like the final death scenes better than what we find in Shakespeare. Just do not ask me to explain how "All for Love" reflects Restoration sensibilities rather than the Elizabethan values of "Antony and Cleopatra." I first read this play and decided to use it as the final play in a mini-trilogy of one-act that used Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra" and Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," and had no problem given Dryden the anchor position. Certainly classes studying English drama can benefit by having students read both the Shakespeare and Dryden versions with an eye out towards better understanding the works of both playwrights. If you are only going to read one play by Dryden, then the only other choices besides this one would be "Aureng-Zebe," his last and best example of the heroic genre or his comedy masterpiece "Marriage a-la-mode." But I would still pick "All For Love."

I am a business book afficionado, and this is one of the best books in the field. It is especially a good book on strategic planning for entrepreneurs. What we learned from the intro and case approach helped us raised our "business fluency". The insights learned from the cases caused us to adjust our business plan. It has also put us in a better position to raise capital.

The Enemy's Country is Hill's second book of criticism, collected from lectures he gave at Cambridge University. Each essay takes on a different topic, ranging from Dryden, Walton and Donne to Ezra Pound. Yet they all fit together in complex ways. The overall theme is the poet's need to operate within the 'contextures' of language and society. The poet should not give way to 'compleasance', yet he must realize the dangers and cannot simply pretend to operate his art from a non-topos, or utopia. He is very much within the world around him, and so is his art. Only the artist who realizes this can struggle against it - his language becomes his resistance.

Hill has given more to the English language than any other 20th century poet, and this volume of criticism only continues that. His prose is almost as dense as his poetry; it makes very hard reading for the uninitiated, but (as with his poetry) over time it yields its secrets and proves very deep and provocative.

For those interested in 16th and 17th century literature in English, this book is indispensible, but even for others, there is much to learn here from a master.

Highly engaging and emminently readable; almost a mini-resource for the non-scholar; and a true page-turner for the Drydenophile. I originally found this book at Amazon.com by performing a subject search, and lately it has received review attention in the scholarly journals. Thanks Amazon for the first notice! Mr Gelber has brought all phases of Mr Dryden's personal and literary biography vividly to life. Although both the scholarship and detail are immediate and wide-ranging, I was most pleased by Mr Gelber's justifiably genuine and unreservedly sympathetic view of his subject. Mr Dryden's reputation has been too much subject to petty carping and unjustifiable criticsm among scholars, whose views of this great man are sometimes both vicious and pernicious. Certainly the Father of Modern Literary Criticism deserves enduring and universal respect and esteem. He has received suitably respectful and sympathetic treatment from Mr Gelber; and I enjoyed having a favorite of mine so well praised. Thank you Mr Gelber; and I wish your book was lengthier; the last page made me wish for more!

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING, PACKED WITH DRAMA, AND SUSPENSE, AND COMEDY. EVERYTHING THE 1999 ACADEMY AWARDS DIDN'T HAVE

I found this text thourough, quotable, rich and exciting. I find it appealing not only because of the famous names talking about translation: Bejamin, Paz, Derrida, Goethe, etc... but also because it covers different historical views on translating - from the 1600 up to date. A great companion to another great translation anothology: "The Translation Studies Reader".

Virgil had set out to create the perfect poem and he succeeded! Unfortunately we no longer use to speak his language. As the millennia pass by we lose rapport with a culture, which had made a science of oratory and banked its entire stock in learning and political persuasion on the fine art of oral delivery. But I feel it still has an edge over our snazzy sound bites designed to titillate the 30 second attention span of hypnotized telly-junkies. Sustained arguments donÕt ambush you on your solar plexus. Inevitably we lose out on VirgilÕs greatest asset - his incomparable melos of sustained oratory and the onomatopoetic effects to highlight the semantics. It comes with an uncanny grip on the significant nuance and with a choice of words which provoked some of his ancient critics to berate Virgil for his ÒinappropriateÓ language. Virgil was felt to have a fondness for the ordinary vocabulary of common people. In fact this extremely shy man spoke with a rustic accent. To pillage the museum of archaic and rare words and add to it a Miltonian accent, is therefore not the way to translate VirgilÕs exceptional qualities. However Mandelbaum and Humphries are living examples for how hard it can be to avoid the opposite extreme of a limp prosiness. A modern reader probably associates something nostalgic and sentimental with this kind of poetry, a hypocritical invocation of good old times and conservative values, but Virgil was never sentimental and the inevitable eulogies on the Imperial regime never exceed a peasantÕs noncommittal deference. Virgil had been indebted to the former triumvir for his intervention in the eviction procedures of VirgilÕs paternal estate and this poem was meant to repay the favor. VirgilÕs wry smile under a heavy brow however betrays the epicurean, even if his line of work demanded more than the occasional nod to the mythological pattern. But the gods up there remain aloof and detached from human interest, although, as a farmerÕs son, Virgil had never lost an affectionate regard for the crowd of genies and minor deities who protect the soil, spray sparks from the cooking-fire, and guard the lintel. Call it superstition, but it is a world cocooned in spiritual comfort. However we would misunderstand VirgilÕs entire outlook, if we ignored his admiring familiarity with LucretiusÕs poem ÒThe Way Things Are.Ó DrydenÕs popularization of the heroic couplet introduced into English prosody a new, slightly ironical, and highly conversational idiom of almost unlimited flexibility. Great poets, like Alexander Pope, could completely specialize on the couplet and drag a living out of it. In the end the 18th century went out of favour, but the saccharine pseudo-lyricism by Romantics, Victorians, and Eduardian poets failed to educate the publicÕs taste for something better than candy for the ear. No wonder that Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot felt as if on a mission. However Eliot couldnÕt bring himself to pick up where the AugusteanÕs had dropped ApolloÕs quiver. This would have placed him close to the later Byron, and everybody knows how much Eliot detested Byron. Besides, DrydenÕs and PopeÕs tone was conversational and of an almost impolite lucidity. For EliotÕs taste their irreverent humor lacked the oracular exuberance of the so called ÒmetaphysicalÓ poets. The romantics had felt the same way, but had managed to fudge the issue and to supplant the old and, in their view, outmoded set of ethical decorum, with J.J. RousseausÕs constipation of the heart and early forays into hard-core nihilism. Indeed, in such company, VirgilÕs ÒGeorgicsÓ must look like a party crasher from outer space. Yet the greatest miracle in VirgilÕs poem is something that remains invisible. It originally ended with an eulogy addressing M. ®lius Gallus. At the time of composition (27 BC.,) Gallus had been AugustusÕ commissioner for Egypt but for some reason fell from grace and was recalled and bullied into committing suicide. So Virgil took out the entire passage from his poem and replaced it with the narrative of Orpheus' quest for his wife at the gates of death. I don't know whether the reader can appreciate what that means: according to my calculation we look in the final edition at some 380 lines rewritten and seamlessly dovetailed to the tightest knit structure of leitmotifs and cross-references ever done in any poem; a little more than 15% of the entire thing. This is not just surgery, this is heart surgery, because it took Virgil 7 years to compose altogether 2,188 lines. If purity of style was his ambition, then Virgil is one of the purest poets of all times. Text and context totally absorb the means of expression without flaunting the poetÕs versatility, something I find sorely lacking in James JoyceÕs ÒUlysses.Ó (See my review on Ulysses.) So Dryden had every reason to put as much effort into his translation as Virgil had put into his composition. And he did. Across the millennia this cooperation of 2 of the greatest poets has created one of the marvelÕs of Augustean prosody; a poem, easily on a par with EliotÕs ÒQuartets.Ó It contains everything a poet would want to tell, as he celebrates life, the seasons, and why it is good to be here, even if it is a hard and unsentimental life under a blazing sky. The Georgics are incredibly rich in content, outlooks and insights, they open unexpected and intriguing perspectives on every page. In a handful of lines Virgil manages to create an entire cosmos. It even contains the original topography for DanteÕs ÒHell.Ó Lesser poets would need a lifetime to cover that much ground and it would take them a whole library of tomes to do it. I think I just have found the book to take with me, if a little briefcase and a T-shirt should be my only possessions left.

Plutarch's Lives is one of my all time favorite books. I especially enjoy the "gay windows" in Alcibiades life and the description of Archimedes defense of Syracuse. My three star rating has nothing to do with Plutarch and everything to do with the terribly outdated translation "update" by Sir Clough. Sure, as another reviewer points out, it is vocabulary enhancing, but Plutarch was not a Victorian English gentleman. If you like Victorian prose, read a Victorian novel or something. I would actually prefer to read Dryden and company's undoctored original than wade through Clough's train wreck, as I find 18th century prose an easier read, and Dryden was a better writer.

If someone were to do a modern translation of the Lives, more people would be able to enjoy it. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that you can probably count the number of good classical translators on one hand, and how many of them have the time to translate Plutarch?

Noble: imposing in appearance; stately; magnificent; exaltedmoral character; excellence. Some of the men Plutarch wrote about - itcould be argued - fit none of the words or phrases above; but most of them fit one or more. Some of them fit all. Books like PLUTARCH'S LIVES become easy targets (in any era, not just our own 'modern' era) for derision. The thought that statesmen or military leaders would necessarily have anything going for them that would distinguish them in any way as 'noble' (as compared to anyone else in any given society) is easily seen as naive or worse than naive. I mean, think of some of the characters that pass for statesmen and military leaders in our own time. We might just have a good laugh if we thought people 1000 years from now were reading about them and gleaning impressions of exalted moral character and magnificence and excellence from it. Yet, putting all that in perspective, there is something ennobling about this great book. Plutarch chose his subjects from, roughly (depending on where you place Theseus in time, I suppose), a span of 800 years. He didn't choose any of them as examples of perfection but for those parts of their nature he thought worthy of emulation. The acts and parts of their character one might find appalling (even in the context of their own times) are instructive as well and make the picture whole. There are high and ennobling impressions in these biographies, and the effect of the book as a whole, upon reading it through, is something like taking in and experiencing a great and sublime Greek or Roman temple, and feeling that a part of that primary and sublime architecture has become a part of you.

Plutarch's Lives is a book of epic proportions. Essentially, it is an encyclopeadia of the biographies of famous men in the history of Ancient Greece and Rome. With over 50 biographies and comparisons, this book covers the most important people in the history of Greco-Roman civilization. The impact of this book is phenomenal. Shakespeare read it, Dante read it. Its influence is evident in their writing. The book transcends simple biography though, and contains a wealth of information about ancient cultures such as Sparta. Plutarch also compares different historical figures to one another for an interesting study of comparative politics and virtue. Some of Plutarch's information is questionable, but it remains one of the best sources available. If you are interested in classical history then this is a great reference and it's enjoyable for pleasure reading as well.