An Introduction to Virgil's Aeneid

by W.A. Camps

This book is geared primarily to students approaching the Aeneid for the first time. It attempts, through discussion of a wide variety of topics, to convey a balanced impression of the nature of the poem as a whole. An appendix includes a version of and ancient Life of Virgil and information about the ancient commentary on him.

Genres: Classics, Roman, Nonfiction, Reference

174 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 1969

Reviews

[Amaranta · Rating 4 out of 5]

ya se me acabaron las ideas de reseñas y goodreads no me reconoce que las estoy haciendo y no entiendo por qué, pero bueno, entonces sólo diré que si leen el índice del libro pues es exactamente eso, y es de muchísima ayuda para estudiar la Eneida, y creo que eso es todo sobre y ya, escribí mucho a la fuerza, adiós.

[Corydon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and reader-friendly introduction, some points further discussed today, though. What is novel about the book is the chapters on the political allusions in the Aeneid.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book dealing with the historical background, language, characters and main themes.

[Simone]

The discussion of the texts is useful.

[Samrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid and wide-ranging introduction, some of which is lost of me with my lack of Latin.

[Alex Down · Rating 4 out of 5]

idc what the haters say I was actually a fan of this. quite nerdy I concede. especially useful for informing an essay about the character of Aeneas!

[Johnathan Barazzuol · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent accompaniment to The Aeneid. A slow read and very analytical. Really assisted my appreciation of some chapters I had initially formed opinions about prior to hearing a second angle from a different perspective. If your gonna read the Aeneid this one is a must as well.

[Kalliope Ormond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this somewhat nervously.

I had already read the Aeneid, and found that to me, at least, it did not compare to Homer's Odyssey. I sincerely hoped that this wasn't going to turn out to be one of those pompous scholarly texts filled with long sentences that need to be read a couple of times before they can be understood. Those are so boring they can put you to sleep and worse, put you off the subject of Classics altogether! Hence my nervousness when reading.

You can see from my rating that I was pleasantly surprised. I found it easy to read and understand, with interesting points that, even if they didn't make me enjoy Virgil's epic more, certainly increased my appreciation for it.

There are a couple of times when Camps writes in Latin, but these are few, so a knowledge of this language is not needed to be able to read the book, although it may help to get all the best out of it.

For anyone starting out exploring the Classics or even those, like me, who were a little put off by the Aeneid, I recommend this book. It's not too long, so won't put off those who want a quick read. I felt all of the sudden very clever and intelligent when I was reading this on the bus, surrounded by people gazing into their phone screens... I can almost feel my face becoming scholarly as I write.

[Jo Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great help for studying the Aeneid at age seventeen! Covers all the "English-y" aspects that the examiners expect. Am recommending it to other students, along with certain websites which I suppose I shouldn't advertise in this review... private message me if you want to know more!