Overview

"One of the best books ever written on one of humanity's greatest epics, W. R. Johnson's classic study of Vergil's Aeneid challenges centuries of received wisdom. Johnson rejects the political and historical reading of the epic as a record of the glorious prehistory of Rome and instead foregrounds Vergil's enigmatic style and questioning of the heroic myths. With an approach to the text that is both grounded in scholarship and intensely personal, and in a style both rhetorically elegant and passionate, Johnson offers readings of specific passages that are nuanced and suggestive as he focuses on the ""somber and nourishing fictions"" in Vergil's poem. A timeless work of scholarship, Darkness Visible will enthrall classicists as well as students and scholars of the history of criticism-specifically the way in which politics influence modern readings of the classics-and of poetry and literature."

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9780226252230

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Splendidly provocative. --Charles Martindale Times Literary Supplement

Johnson's reinterpretation challenges many strong and common beliefs, not only about the Aeneid but about life itself. (William M. Porter, Arion)

Johnson's reinterpretation challenges many strong and common beliefs, not only about the Aeneid but about life itself. Indeed, although the book deserves careful study for its readings of passages alone, it is no mere literary analysis, and herein lies its nobility. --William M. Porter Arion

Author Information

W. R. Johnson is the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, in the Department of Classics at the University of Chicago.

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