Vergil

“Ms. Ruden has converted the writer of the Aeneid from a noble and stodgy ‘ancient’ into our contemporary . . . persuasively re-imagined [as] a sympathetic, three-dimensional figure. . . . The existence of the Aeneid is cause for gratitude. So is Ms. Ruden’s sensitive, celebratory portrait of its maker.”—Willard Spiegelman, Wall Street Journal

“Ruden is a considerable scholar who conveys the brilliance of the Aeneid concisely.”—Harry Mount, The Spectator

“It is hard to imagine Sarah Ruden’s wise, insightful, and engaging Vergil: The Poet’s Life being bettered.”—Max Carter, Air Mail

“A classicist and masterful translator, Ruden reconstructs and reimagines Vergil’s life. . . . The book is informed by Ruden’s verse rendering of The Aeneid, which this reviewer considers the best translation of The Aeneid available in English for its accuracy and prosody. Ruden . . . offers fresh insight into Vergil’s highly fraught relationship with Octavian (later Augustus) and with the power dynamics of literary patronage. . . . Essential.”—P. E. Phillips, Choice

“A detailed biography of Vergil should be impossible; but Sarah Ruden displays such subtlety, such imagination, such love for her subject, as to render the impossible possible.”—Tom Holland, author of Dominion

“An enlightening and thoroughly modern introduction to Rome’s premier poet. This book should be required reading for every student and reader of Vergil’s immortal verse.”—Daisy Dunn, author of The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny

“In this engaging account, Sarah Ruden brings Vergil back as a living, breathing person, navigating issues of politics, sexuality, class, and culture that we still confront today.”—Randall Ganiban, Middlebury College