The Cambridge Companion to Virgil (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Rating:
Summary: Hard for general reader: too technical & theoretical.
Review: General readers may well be confused & misled by the introduction to this book, which indulges in what is known as "reception theory": according to this theory, Virgil's reception by readers through the ages has been marked by partiality & bias, which the present editor sets out to expose. He forgets that he, too, is a reader with an outlook rooted in a specific (our own) time. His own limitations as a reader become apparent when he produces a confused & reductive essay on Virgil's first major work, The Book of Bucolics (also known as eclogues) -- a source for the tradition of pastoral poetry in the West. Other scholars will no doubt find other essays to praise or blame in such a wide range, but no one, I think, will admire the theoretical posturing & self-involvement of the editorial frame. Those wishing a fuller discussion of issues raised by this book may reach me at the appended address.