The Aeneid

In his majestic history, Thucydides expresses the desire that his work will be a possession for all time.So too is Shadi Bartsch's translation of Vergil's Aeneid a possession for all time. The English is crisp and clear, it is almost as if Vergil had composed the epic in English. Like Frank Copley, Bartsch produces a line-by-line translation of the Aeneid, no small feat considering that Latin is much more concise than English.Some points to consider:1. The verb condo, plant or found, is used to describe Aeneid planting of a town in Latium in Book 1 and planting his sword in the chest of Turnus in Book 12. Both entailed violence.2. Then there is pius Aeneas himself. No great heroic figure in the Iliad where he needs to be rescued by Venus. Bartsch highlights the tradition that Aeneas is a traitor having fled from Troy to save his skin. Aeneas claims to have left Troy with no possessions yet has gifts for Dido; possibly he was paid off by the Greeks. How did he obtain Helen's veil?3. In Book 6 Anchises speaks of the Roman arts, to war down the arrogant but spare the downcast. In Book 12 when Turnus on the ground asks Aeneas to set aside his anger, Aeneas on seeing Pallas belt plunges his sword into Turnus. Throughout the epic, Juno typifies furor, rage, whereas Aeneas is supposed to be the exemplar of pietas. By the end of the epic, Juno has set aside furor whereas Aeneas embraces it.4. At the end of Book 6 Aeneas leaves the Underworld through the ivory gate of false dreams. Was it all just a dream, Augustus being the son of the gods, the Romans sparing the vanquished, the Greeks fleeing at the sight of Aeneas who performed quite unheroically in the Iliad as stated above?5. One more point. In Book 12 Jupiter has the scales determining whether Aeneas or Turnus will die after the combat. We are not told who is destined to die as we are in the Iliad when Zeus balances the scales and Hector is shown to be the one who will die at the hands of Achilles. This may mean that Turnus did not have to die, Aeneas could have spared him.I strongly recommend this translation to anyone interested in great literature and Vergil's immortal epic. You will learn so much from the superb introduction to this translation.

If you are EVER going to get into this amazing story, my bet is that this translation will be the one that does it for you. Exciting and engaging. A complete success.

The writing style is modern + poetic, making it easy to follow through, while remaining faithful to the source material. I also like when the author adds context/meanings to words modern readers wouldn't understand.Highly recommend this version of the book

Very easy to read and with valuable notes for a better understanding of the characters.There is a sizable amount of the Iliad and the Odyssey, both in content and style.Had some difficulty with the Roman Gods a part of whom are latinized versions of Greek Gods. Plus some new additions I was not familiar with them.

I have taught High school Latin, and the Aeneid, for over 20 years. In the past I have enjoyed the translations of Fitzgerald and Fagles, but I think Prof. Bartsch surpasses them. While other translators require extra lines to translate (20 lines of Vergil might be written into 25 English verses by Fagles), Bartsch keeps a 1-1 correspondence. The result is a quick-moving and more readable version of Vergil, all the while retaining fidelity to the original. I highly recommend this version.

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This new translation positively strides along, reading like the poem on which it’s based. Rather than striving for her own poetry, Bartsch set out to give us Virgil’s poem simply transposed to English. She succeeds beautifully.

I am returning this book to Amazon for a refund. Some sections of text are readable only with difficulty, and some are not readable at all. On multiple pages the ink did not catch the paper in spots. In some places only barely, and in some places not at all.!!! PUBLISHER PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS DEFECT IN YOUR PHYSICAL PRODUCT !!!The book itself (insofar as content) is satisfying enough. Let me mention, however, that having only chapter headings but no section headings makes understanding the story line difficult. Compare this with the "Poetry in Translation" edition by A. S. Kline (also available here on Amazon), which has numerous section headings. These help us follow what is going on, section by section. For me they are a sine qua non.On the other hand, this edition has very extensive front/ back matter (thank you!) while Kline's version has none of those (except a list of the chapters and section headers, which appear both at the very front of the book, and within each chapter). So, like everywhere else in life, there are trade-offs.The author of this translation explains why a new translation was warranted (to which she devoted four years!), despite that so many fine English translations of the Aeneid already exist. If I understand correctly, a primary reason (if not *the* primary reason?) for that is that virtually every one of those pre-existing translations was done by a man. So it was felt that a woman's perspective was sorely lacking and needed.Perhaps so, but I cannot really say that that factor alone is sufficient for me, personally, to justify purchasing the book. (Which is why I am returning it for a refund rather than exchanging my damaged copy for a more perfect one.)