Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
32(32%)
4 stars
37(37%)
3 stars
31(31%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews
April 1,2025
... Show More
This translation is fine. Coming from me, that is high praise, because I prefer to read Vergil in Latin and I find English translations of his poems uniformly boring, unlike the originals.
If you want to experience the Eclogues as English poetry, there is something to be said for Dryden (or his predecessor in translation, Lisle), if only because the poems then fit into a tradition that for many readers of English is firmly fixed on works like Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd."
If you are looking for a translation of the Eclogues to use with students who are familiar with Classical literature and mythology, this is a good one. For unfamiliar students, I would seek out something with more or better notes. (Unglossed patronymics, e.g. Alcides, will always leave people confused about important things.)
April 1,2025
... Show More
A masterpiece of the lyric, highly influential, but in a mode I am not immersed in, so this felt a bit distant, and the pace I read it at may have obscured a stronger awareness of the inner connections between the poems.

But the ending line, of going home, is a poignant evocation of all in the poems that dealt with home, with being uprooted, and with having a secure place.
April 1,2025
... Show More
Excelente edición para adentrarse en la obra de Virgilio y, en general, a la poesía pastoril. El libro comienza con un estudio sobre las «Bucólicas», en el que se analiza el contexto, las influencias de la obra y las características de las églogas como género.

En cuanto a las églogas, cada una cuenta con una introducción del editor; además, están acompañadas de un sinnúmero de notas que facilitan la comprensión de los textos al lector.

Se trata, pues, de un libro indispensable para conocer la cultura latina y comprender mejor las obras de la literatura española de los siglos áureos.
April 1,2025
... Show More
Not me thinking I had like 50% of the book left when in reality I had about 7 pages woop woop. Also get me actually doing the the reading for the Ancient lit module for once who am I?!?- Naomi would be proud EXCEPT OH WAIT SHE CAN'T SEE THIS BECAUSE SHE REFUSES TO LET ME FOLLOW HER.

This is a collection of rustic/pastoral tales so they aren't connected in the sense of the characters but are connected in the sense of the amobean pastoral form i.e a bunch of goats and cheeses and trees. It was a bit confusing having no set connection to all the tales and the people's names aren't exactly memorable so I fully thought it was all one connected story until about half-way through. Take this Mopsus, Meliboeus and Menalcas etc me and my 'M' name would fit right in. Anyway I really liked the whole countryside feel Virgil had going on- he is after all queen of countryside writing, no fighting and farm bees instead; Putin needs to farm some bees the lady doth thinks.

Anyways distraction, Virgil fan-girling over bees doesn't even happen in this book. The ending of the last Eclogue was an absolute bop and kinda (?) sums up all of them- "Get home, my full-fed goats, get home- the Evening star draws on." Mood, I've decided I want to be a goat running around Ancient Roman countryside.

I admit I did have to have up a plot summary thing of all the Eclogues, because otherwise I fully had no clue what was going on. I also don't think the Loeb translation was that accessible but it had the Latin by the side of it which was fun because I could kinda translate some parts of it??? Yay?? Also I cannot lie Virgil is not particularly the most exhilarating Ancient author to read so yeah not the best and a tad repetitive- goats and effectively farmers having our equivalent to rap battles in the countryside do get a bit samey after a while.
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.