Product Description

Virgil's Aeneid, one of the greatest Classical poems, tells the story of Aeneas, son of Priam, after the fall of Troy. His quest is to find the site "in the west" where he will found a new town prophesied to be the seat of a world empire - Rome. This great poem, in a modern translation by Cecil Day Lewis, is superbly read by the great classical actor Paul Scofield, with Jill Balcon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53301 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-31
• Released on: 2004-11-29
• Formats: Abridged, Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 4
• Dimensions: .48 pounds
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Epic
The Aeneid of Virgil has some of the most beautiful poetry ever written, all of which has to be read out loud to get the best effect - the audio cd is a great way to hear the poem without wearing out your voice - it also leaves your hands free to do other things (such as wash the dishes!)

Essential for the civilised reader/listener
It is about Aeneas, but there are two others who must be mentioned.

First there is Paul Scofield, whose wonderful voice enriches this telling of the story immensely. At times you hardly notice him, as he lets the work do its own work. But then you realise how his grasp of the cadences of Virgil's poetry and his ability to bring out the meaning, where the dense classical text in translation can be demanding, makes this a real pleasure to listen to.

Then there is Virgil. Others will know more of him than I did, but for me it was striking how the character from Dante: Inferno (Penguin Classics)now made so much more sense. He tells a story sad and powerful. In fact there are several stories. First he picks up from Homer and picks up the story of the The Iliad (Penguin Classics)describing the fate of Troy. Then he tells us the wonderful story of Dido and Aeneas. I stopped at this point to listen to Purcell - Dido and Aeneas. This is where I knew that Virgil could tell it how it is. Then there is the descent into the underworld, prefiguring Dante, and last is the account of the foundation of Rome, looking ahead to the Caesars and many others.

If you want to join the dots in the classical world, this is the book. If you want to get the power of the spoken tale, then it would be hard to do better than listen to Paul Scofield.