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Product Description
Product Description
Juvenal, writing between AD 110 and 130, was one of the greatest satirists of Imperial Rome. His powerful and witty attacks on the vices, abuses, and follies of the big city have been admired and used by many English writers, including Ben Jonson, Dryden, and most notably, Dr Johnson, who described his writing as `a mixture of gaiety and statelines, of pointed sentences and declamatory grandeur'. Juvenal has been seen as a stern moralist and, more recently, as an extravagant wit, and is acclaimed for his vivid description of the scenes which aroused his anger. He coined the famous phrase designating people `eager and anxious for two things; bread and races' (panem et circenses'). Niall Rudd's translation reproduces the original style and metrical effect of Juvenal's hexameters. William Barr's Introduction and Notes provide literary and historical background to the sixteen satires.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Juvenal has been described as the tabloid of his day and whilst I see the point that is being made, it is a most unfair comparison. He reminded me somewhat of a grumpy old man railing against the corruption, injustice and decadence of the Rome of the time, yet the early satires were apparently written when he was still quite young.
I would not try this without first having read Seutonius or some other such history, because you really do need a basic understanding of the background from which the writes comes, but if you do have a passing knowledge of ancient Rome, you will find some of the observations genuinely funny and satirical.
It's not the most obvious book for a casual reader to pick up, but once into the mindset, I found myself laughing out loud at some of the observations.
I would not try this without first having read Seutonius or some other such history, because you really do need a basic understanding of the background from which the writes comes, but if you do have a passing knowledge of ancient Rome, you will find some of the observations genuinely funny and satirical.
It's not the most obvious book for a casual reader to pick up, but once into the mindset, I found myself laughing out loud at some of the observations.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Suprisingly Readable
23 Mar 2012
Format:Paperback
I have trouble staying interested in most plays or poems so I thought this was going to be difficult to read, but it was not (tip: read the Wikipedia summary for each Satire first, then read it in the book). Peter Green (Penguin) is my favorite translator of classics so definitely read his version. His line "Don't you want to cram whole notebooks with scribbled invective" felt very relatable to what's going on in my own life right now. Juvenal, who is known mostly for his sexual innuendo and anger, felt surprisingly Stoic to me. In fact, in one Satire he has what I feel is the best explanation of the difference between Stoics, Cynics and Epicureans-the Stoics and the Cynics have just a shirt between them. (See if you can figure out what he means.)
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