The Other Virgil `Pessimistic' Readings of the Aeneid in Early Modern Culture [Hardcover]

The Other Virgiltells the story of how a classic like theAeneidcan say different things to different people. As a school text it was generally taught to support the values and ideals of a succession of postclassical societies, but between 1500 and 1800 a number of unusually sensitive readers responded to cues in the text that call into question what the poem appears to be supporting. This book focuses on the literary works written by these readers, to show how they used theAeneidas a model for poems that probed and challenged the dominant values of their society, just as Virgil had done centuries before. Some of these poems are not as well known today as they should be, but others, like Milton'sParadise Lostand Shakespeare'sThe Tempest, are; in the latter case, the poems can be understood in new ways once their relationship to the 'other Virgil' is made clear.

This is an interesting book, which offers a good deal to appreciate.... his book is attractively written and widely learned. --Richard Jenkyns,Common Knowledge

In his admirable study, Kallendorf...shows how intelligent, exciting criticism can make it so that the cultural past continues to evolve and surprise, or put another way, to live. --Scott McGill,Classical World

Kallendorf's work is generous; it both shows and shares Virgil's openness, gesturing out to future lines of inquiry in its conclusion. This challenging study shows how much exciting work there is still to do as we try to catch up with the past. --Milton Quarterly

Craig Kallendorf is Professor of English and Classics, Texas A&M University.