The Aeneid

By: Virgil, John Dryden - translator

Narrated by: Michael Page

After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, the poet Virgil wrote The Aeneid to honor the emperor Augustus by praising Aeneas, Augustus's legendary ancestor. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, The Aeneid also set out to provide Rome with a literature equal to that of Greece.

It tells of Aeneas, survivor of the sack of Troy, and of his seven-year journey: to Carthage, where he fell tragically in love with Queen Dido; to the underworld, in the company of the Sibyl of Cumae; and, finally, to Italy, where he founded Rome. It is a story of defeat and exile, and of love and war.

Virgil's Aeneid is as eternal as Rome itself, a sweeping epic of arms and heroism - the searching portrait of a man caught between love and duty, human feeling, and the force of fate. Filled with drama, passion, and the universal pathos that only a masterpiece can express. The Aeneid is a book for all the time and all people. This version of The Aeneid is the classic translation by John Dryden.

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor

Where the Roman believed they originated

The Aeneid is the cornerstone of Roman belief in their origins. While ironically being poetry, some of its lines are some of the most beautiful literature ever written. We join Aeneus on his flight from a falling Troy as he loses literally everything including his wife. His party flee across the Aegean into the Mediterranean sea and find themselves in the early stages of Carthage. Here we meet Queen Dido and as Aeneus is still mourning falls for her. He is visited by a God that gives him a mission that requires him to leave Carthage and settle in the Latin areas of Italy. From there all Roman history begins.

Overall I enjoyed the book. However, it became slightly harder to follow for me once they got to Italy. It became the Roman propaganda I figured it would once that point is reached. IE everything Aeneus does is glorified whereas earlier on we see more of his flaws. I still highly enjoyed The Aeneid that just bugged me a bit. Considering that Augustus personally employed Virgil to write it, I can't help but believe he reviewed it and edited parts of it.

To tame the proud, the fetter’d slave to free…

Untrammeled by any knowledge of Latin, I can say this remains my favorite translation of the Aeneid, primarily because it is a powerful English poem on its own terms, by one of my favorite English poets. Among his many merits, Dryden makes freer use of enjambment than Pope (see the latter's translation of the Iliad), softening the monotony of heroic couplets.

Say what you want about Aeneas being a straight arrow. Compare him unfavorably to the wily, many-sided Odysseus. Dismiss the Roman patriotism as propagandistic toadyism. There remains something grand in the ideals here expressed. Subversion is not the only gambit available to poets. And if you listen closely, Virgil’s vision is not unclouded by ambiguities.

Overall, Michael Page does a fine job. Though reading heroic couplets, I do wish he would strive less for the heroic declaration (the faint echo in the room tone doesn't help, either). But he’s miles better than Simon Callow’s deep-breathing exercises.

Performance was great subject matter was not.

The translation was hard to understand, but John Dryden did translate it in the 17th century. I thought the artistry of the poetry was good, if not great; it's just that the story of the poem is not that good. There is Rome and Augustus pandering, but of course, it would be there. Most interesting was how the Greek notion of the hero differed from the Roman; for example, compare Achilles to Aeneas.

Overall, I recommend the audio book if you're a John Dryden fan, I have not listened to any other translations. I was not disappointed by the poetry or performance but by the story itself.

Page brings Dryden's genuis to life.

I found myself rewinding many times to relisten to Dryden's classics lines and metaphors. Michael Page reads like a Shakespearean actor.

A Classic

Sometimes when you read a classic, especially a classic in translation, it's hard to tell exactly why it's a classic. That isn't a problem here. The ghost of Virgil was hovering over Dryden when he rendered this epic in rhymed couplets. And the ghost of Dryden hovered over Michael Page when he delivered his vigorous narration.