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jessicadmj's review against another edition
3.0
This book has an interesting premise for me: recounting the final hours of Vergil's life, and his last wish to burn the Aeneid, failing because his friends and Augustus Caesar prevented him. The writing is very beautiful, however, if you don't enjoy Modernist writing like Joyce, then this book probably isn't for you. And I'm not really a Dan of the modernists, so this book doesn't agree with my personal tastes.
At first, I found Vergil's fevered dream sequences captivating... but after 200-300 pages of it, I was getting a little bored. Some parts are a bit too drawn out for my taste. For example, there is a dialogue between Augustus and Vergil that spans about 100 pages. I wish I was exaggerating. I think the author could have achieved the same purpose with half as many pages. A difficult read... one must be able to survive the page-long sentences and slow exposition.
At first, I found Vergil's fevered dream sequences captivating... but after 200-300 pages of it, I was getting a little bored. Some parts are a bit too drawn out for my taste. For example, there is a dialogue between Augustus and Vergil that spans about 100 pages. I wish I was exaggerating. I think the author could have achieved the same purpose with half as many pages. A difficult read... one must be able to survive the page-long sentences and slow exposition.
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