The Aeneid: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

pleasing to read

PLEASE BE AWARE ~ This review is for the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition only. Amazon have replicated my review on the Oxford Classics edition webpage which is inaccurate. If I'd gone on the strength of the pitiful reviews on here, I'd never have bought this version and would, instead, have opted for perhaps the Oxford Classics version. However, a personal twist of fate (American partner bought this, and I wanted to keep abreast) meant me purchasing this over another. I can't speak highly enough, especially given the trepidation I felt before receiving it. Fagles' translation is superb, and for anyone new to Aeneid, you're in for a serious treat. If the Aeneid was a film, it would be something high octane, probably directed by Ridley Scott or James Cameron (the good ones!). The language is powerful, luxurious, surging forward off the pages. Fagles' use of present tense does not damage the experience for me whatsoever. If anything, it brings the experience of this adventure to the fore. In short, a page-turner. It's exciting. Take, for example, this wonderful early description of King Aeolus' Winds that he keeps locked up: "With such anger seething inside her fiery heart the goddess reached Aeolia, breeding-ground of storms, their home swarming with raging gusts from the South. Here in a vast cave King Aeolus rules the winds, brawling to break free, howling in full gale force as he chains them down in their dungeon, shackled fast. They bluster in protest, roaring round their prison bars with a mountain above them all, booming with their rage. But high in his stronghold Aeolus wields his scepter, soothing their passions, tempering their fury. Should he fail, surely they'd blow the world away, hurling the land and sea and deep sky through space. Fearing this, the almighty Father banished the winds to that black cavern, piled above them a mountain mass and imposed on all a king empowered, by binding pact, to rein them back on command or let them gallop free." Stunning. I have to say, Penguin have done a lovely job with the deluxe classic editions they're printing. Mine has a different, golden cover, and the page edges are milled. I'm not sure what this edition is like, but it is also a deluxe edition so I imagine it's pretty sumptuous. (Edit ~ the stock photo now shows the same version I have). Incidentally, the reviews on amazon.com are far more balanced and informing and if you're deliberating over which edition might suit you best, you could do worse than taking stock of what folks the other side of the pond are saying about this.

Recommended

I already have a kindle version. But with some classics, need to be read many times and annotated over time to refine one's understanding of it. This is one such classic.

Be aware that a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition means it has deckled page edges i.e. some pages have feathered edge rather than cut edges.