Status
Checked out
Publication
Harcourt (2008), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 288 pages
Description
In The Aeneid, Vergil's hero fights to claim the king's daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word in the poem. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes the reader to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.
Media reviews
A Son Of The Rock
Lavinia is a historical novel set in mythical antiquity, Bronze Age Italy in the aftermath of the Trojan War. Le Guin has taken a (very) minor character from Virgil’s epic The Aeneid - in the poem Aeneas’s last wife Lavinia has no line of dialogue whatsoever - and given her voice. And a
For Lavinia starts a war. Not by allowing herself to be taken by men, she says (in a beautifully understated inference to the much more famous Helen) but instead by choosing one for herself. I quibble slightly at who actually chooses Aeneas for Lavinia; she is swayed not only by the lack of suitability of the other candidates for her hand but also by her conversations with the poet. Otherwise she is a strong decisive character, who stands up to both her father, the King Latinus, and mother, Amata, and later to Ascanius, Aeneas’s son by his previous marriage.
Given the book’s context the perennial follies of men are an unsurprising theme of Lavinia, the character and the novel.
Despite its setting the book was on the short list for the BSFA Award for best novel of 2009, which on the face of it is baffling, even if Le Guin is a stalwart of the genres of SF and fantasy. I suppose its proposers could argue that since in the book Lavinia speaks with the ghost of a poet not yet born in her time there is an element of fantasy present. (Le Guin uses the spelling Vergil. I know his Latin name was Vergilius but in my youth the poem was always known as Virgil’s Aeneid.) True too, the past is always a different country. Fictionally it takes as much imagination to invest it with verisimilitude as it does to describe an as yet unrealised (SF) future. Except - sometimes - you can research the past.
This is an admirably realised and executed novel, though, whichever genre you wish to pigeon-hole it with.
Or you could say, as I do, that it is simply an excellent novel, full stop.
Show More
powerful and seemingly authentic voice too. The landscape, homes, religion, politicking, people and battles are all convincingly portrayed. When reading this you feel as if you are there, immersed in prehistory. Even the scenes in the place of oracles where Lavinia talks to the apparition she knows only as the poet - she could merely be dreaming of course - have the stamp of authority. At any rate Lavinia believes in him, and his revelations are borne out by events. There is, too, enough of a body count - foretold by the poet in a long, disturbing list - to satisfy the bloodthirsty. For Lavinia starts a war. Not by allowing herself to be taken by men, she says (in a beautifully understated inference to the much more famous Helen) but instead by choosing one for herself. I quibble slightly at who actually chooses Aeneas for Lavinia; she is swayed not only by the lack of suitability of the other candidates for her hand but also by her conversations with the poet. Otherwise she is a strong decisive character, who stands up to both her father, the King Latinus, and mother, Amata, and later to Ascanius, Aeneas’s son by his previous marriage.
Given the book’s context the perennial follies of men are an unsurprising theme of Lavinia, the character and the novel.
Despite its setting the book was on the short list for the BSFA Award for best novel of 2009, which on the face of it is baffling, even if Le Guin is a stalwart of the genres of SF and fantasy. I suppose its proposers could argue that since in the book Lavinia speaks with the ghost of a poet not yet born in her time there is an element of fantasy present. (Le Guin uses the spelling Vergil. I know his Latin name was Vergilius but in my youth the poem was always known as Virgil’s Aeneid.) True too, the past is always a different country. Fictionally it takes as much imagination to invest it with verisimilitude as it does to describe an as yet unrealised (SF) future. Except - sometimes - you can research the past.
This is an admirably realised and executed novel, though, whichever genre you wish to pigeon-hole it with.
Or you could say, as I do, that it is simply an excellent novel, full stop.
Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: In The Aeneid, Aeneas arrives in what will one day be known as Italy, and marries the King's daughter, Lavinia, thus founding the line that will one day lead to the Roman empire. In this book, LeGuin gives us the story from Lavinia's point of view: a young girl who grew up in the peace
Review: I picked up Lavinia due to its similarities with Jo Graham's Black Ships, which I absolutely loved. Both are retellings of part of The Aeneid (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I have not read) from a minor character's (and woman's) point of view. Lavinia picks up more or less where Black Ships leaves off, with Aeneas's arrival in Italy. But, while they're obviously very similar in story and in perspective, there was a definite difference in my reaction; while Black Ships took my breath away, I was never particularly captivated by Lavinia.
That's not to say that Lavinia was a bad read. In fact, I did quite enjoy both the early sections of the book - which describe Lavinia's childhood, and gave me an excellent sense for the structure of life in ancient Italy - and the later sections of the book, in which Lavinia is struggling against her knowledge of her husband's untimely yet fated death. I also thought that using Virgil's ghost as the mouthpiece of prophecy was an interesting touch that gave the story an extra dimension of musing on fate and knowledge and coincidence and causality, although some of the parts in which Lavinia spends time ruminating about whether she's even real or just a creation of "the poet" were a little bit *too* meta for my tastes.
However, I never really connected with the characters as much as I would have liked, nor did I really feel any sense of urgency about the story (with the exception of the part immediately preceding Aeneas's death, as I mentioned.) Particularly in the middle section of the book, and particularly during LeGuin's description of the battles that followed Lavinia's betrothal to Aeneas, I found my attention wandering. There's a lot of "so-and-so slew so-and-so", but since none of the minor characters were developed much beyond a name, I didn't particularly care. Overall, while the book was for the most part well done, did have enough interesting parts to keep me reading, I didn't find much to get really excited about, either. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: While I didn't *love* it, I liked it well enough, and it's a relatively easy read, so if you like myths, legends, and other classic stories retold from a woman's point of view (a la The Mists of Avalon), or if you're interested in pre-Roman Italy, then I'd recommend giving Lavinia a chance.
Show More
that her father had created among the warring tribes. A girl with a mother who is more than half-mad, whose ambition seeks for her daughter to marry her powerful yet arrogant cousin Turnus. A girl who does not want to marry, but who is told by oracles and omens that she must wed a foreigner, and that her doing so will cause a deadly war. A girl who knows that her husband is fated to live for only a few years, leaving her behind forever. A girl who is silent in Virgil's poem, but who has her own story to tell, and who has finally reclaimed her voice.Review: I picked up Lavinia due to its similarities with Jo Graham's Black Ships, which I absolutely loved. Both are retellings of part of The Aeneid (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I have not read) from a minor character's (and woman's) point of view. Lavinia picks up more or less where Black Ships leaves off, with Aeneas's arrival in Italy. But, while they're obviously very similar in story and in perspective, there was a definite difference in my reaction; while Black Ships took my breath away, I was never particularly captivated by Lavinia.
That's not to say that Lavinia was a bad read. In fact, I did quite enjoy both the early sections of the book - which describe Lavinia's childhood, and gave me an excellent sense for the structure of life in ancient Italy - and the later sections of the book, in which Lavinia is struggling against her knowledge of her husband's untimely yet fated death. I also thought that using Virgil's ghost as the mouthpiece of prophecy was an interesting touch that gave the story an extra dimension of musing on fate and knowledge and coincidence and causality, although some of the parts in which Lavinia spends time ruminating about whether she's even real or just a creation of "the poet" were a little bit *too* meta for my tastes.
However, I never really connected with the characters as much as I would have liked, nor did I really feel any sense of urgency about the story (with the exception of the part immediately preceding Aeneas's death, as I mentioned.) Particularly in the middle section of the book, and particularly during LeGuin's description of the battles that followed Lavinia's betrothal to Aeneas, I found my attention wandering. There's a lot of "so-and-so slew so-and-so", but since none of the minor characters were developed much beyond a name, I didn't particularly care. Overall, while the book was for the most part well done, did have enough interesting parts to keep me reading, I didn't find much to get really excited about, either. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: While I didn't *love* it, I liked it well enough, and it's a relatively easy read, so if you like myths, legends, and other classic stories retold from a woman's point of view (a la The Mists of Avalon), or if you're interested in pre-Roman Italy, then I'd recommend giving Lavinia a chance.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Berly
Lavinia took me right back to my high school English classes and all the great classics. This amazing novel is a retelling of the Aeneid from the point of view of Vergil's character Lavinia. In Vergil's epic poem, Lavinia does not utter a word, but here, Le Guin sets her free and we hear of the
Show More
suitors and the prophecies, the battles and of her great love. It is an amazing work and now I have to find my copy of the Aeneid again. I think Le Guin is one of the most gifted of writers, and I am not alone. Do you know how many awards she has won? Let me list them for you: A National Book Award, five Hugo and five Nebula, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Pen/Malamud Award. Whew!! Oh, and she lives in Portland, OR, where I am from. ; ) Show Less
LibraryThing member gbill
In this book Ursula K. Le Guin riffs on a minor character from Virgil’s Aeneid, that of Lavinia, daughter of Latinus and eventual wife of Aeneas. Aeneas, of course, was the Trojan prince not killed when Troy fell, escaping and traveling to Italy, after a journey ala Odysseus took him to places
Little was mentioned of Lavinia in the source text, but Le Guin crafts quite a narrative around her, and to her credit, it’s completely harmonious with Virgil’s work. In weaker hands it might have become some kind of manifesto, but Le Guin uses Lavinia to fill out the story from a woman’s perspective. The result is a broader picture of life in the 8th century BC in the area around what would become Rome, even if Le Guin (as Virgil did) makes it a teeny less primitive than it may have been, as she discusses in the Afterword. The elements of intrigue and inevitable warfare are of course present, but the perspective shift brings them more to life, and adds a layer of humanism.
Le Guin uses an interesting technique of having the narrator, Lavinia, communicating with poet Virgil who would live centuries later, and aware of this fact, much as the people of the day would consult oracles and abide by them. It’s a scholarly work, and one that was clearly well-researched. It would make a fantastic companion read with the Aeneid, and even reading it many years after the Aeneid in my case, brought it back to life for me. It’s the stuff of legend, but communicates universal truths about humanity, both in virtues and failings.
Show More
like Carthage where he’d meet Queen Dido. His descendants, so the Virgil legend goes, would found Rome. It’s the second half of the Aeneid that Le Guin essentially retells in prose through Lavinia, the point at which Aeneas arrives.Little was mentioned of Lavinia in the source text, but Le Guin crafts quite a narrative around her, and to her credit, it’s completely harmonious with Virgil’s work. In weaker hands it might have become some kind of manifesto, but Le Guin uses Lavinia to fill out the story from a woman’s perspective. The result is a broader picture of life in the 8th century BC in the area around what would become Rome, even if Le Guin (as Virgil did) makes it a teeny less primitive than it may have been, as she discusses in the Afterword. The elements of intrigue and inevitable warfare are of course present, but the perspective shift brings them more to life, and adds a layer of humanism.
Le Guin uses an interesting technique of having the narrator, Lavinia, communicating with poet Virgil who would live centuries later, and aware of this fact, much as the people of the day would consult oracles and abide by them. It’s a scholarly work, and one that was clearly well-researched. It would make a fantastic companion read with the Aeneid, and even reading it many years after the Aeneid in my case, brought it back to life for me. It’s the stuff of legend, but communicates universal truths about humanity, both in virtues and failings.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jveezer
A single daughter, now ripe for a man,
now of full marriageable age, kept the great
household. Many from borad Latium and
all Ausonia came wooing her...
From these lines and the rest of the last six books of Vergil's epic poem the Aeneid, Le Guin weaves the story of Lavinia. So beautiful does the
At 78 years old, I'll take any love offering Ursula wants to write. Lavinia is my favorite novel outside of the Earthsea Series. I loved how she moved fluidly back and forth in time and between worlds, imagining the spiritual bonds and interaction between the people and their places. Her insights into war and it's place in the male psyche make one wonder if we'll ever break free from it's violence. This was a hard book to put down and therefore a quick read.
now of full marriageable age, kept the great
household. Many from borad Latium and
all Ausonia came wooing her...
From these lines and the rest of the last six books of Vergil's epic poem the Aeneid, Le Guin weaves the story of Lavinia. So beautiful does the
Show More
author find Virgil's poetry that she calls her novel an "act of gratitude to the poet, a love offering".At 78 years old, I'll take any love offering Ursula wants to write. Lavinia is my favorite novel outside of the Earthsea Series. I loved how she moved fluidly back and forth in time and between worlds, imagining the spiritual bonds and interaction between the people and their places. Her insights into war and it's place in the male psyche make one wonder if we'll ever break free from it's violence. This was a hard book to put down and therefore a quick read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kmaziarz
In the great epic poem the Aeneid, the character of Lavinia, Latin wife to Aeneas, never utters a word. In fact, she is barely even described. Le Guin here sets out to rectify the situation, fleshing out the character into a real, complex person in her own right, rather than the mere plot device
Here we have the beautiful, strong-minded, and spiritual princess Lavinia of Latinum, only surviving child to King Latinus and his queen, Queen Amata. The childhood deaths of their sons has unhinged Amata and driven a wedge between mother and daughter, but Lavinia and Latinus are close. As Lavinia approaches a marriageable age, Amata becomes fixated on marrying Lavinia to her nephew, Turnus, the ambitious king of a neighboring kingdom. It would be a good match politically, but Lavinia fears both her mother’s motives for the marriage and also Turnus’. Besides which, while on a spiritual vigil in her youth, Lavinia received visions from none other than Virgil himself in which he, near death in his own time and place, bemoaned the fact that he had so slighted her in his poem and foretold her marriage to the great king Aeneas. Thus spiritually armed against her mother’s crazed insistence, Lavinia chooses to make her own destiny on the day the Trojan Aeneas’s black ships sail up the Tiber toward the land that will one day become Rome.
Lyrically beautiful, wonderfully detailed and well-researched, Lavinia is a triumph from an author already worthy of acclaim. Highly recommended.
Show More
she served as in Virgil’s poem. Le Guin succeeds wonderfully.Here we have the beautiful, strong-minded, and spiritual princess Lavinia of Latinum, only surviving child to King Latinus and his queen, Queen Amata. The childhood deaths of their sons has unhinged Amata and driven a wedge between mother and daughter, but Lavinia and Latinus are close. As Lavinia approaches a marriageable age, Amata becomes fixated on marrying Lavinia to her nephew, Turnus, the ambitious king of a neighboring kingdom. It would be a good match politically, but Lavinia fears both her mother’s motives for the marriage and also Turnus’. Besides which, while on a spiritual vigil in her youth, Lavinia received visions from none other than Virgil himself in which he, near death in his own time and place, bemoaned the fact that he had so slighted her in his poem and foretold her marriage to the great king Aeneas. Thus spiritually armed against her mother’s crazed insistence, Lavinia chooses to make her own destiny on the day the Trojan Aeneas’s black ships sail up the Tiber toward the land that will one day become Rome.
Lyrically beautiful, wonderfully detailed and well-researched, Lavinia is a triumph from an author already worthy of acclaim. Highly recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member masterdeski
I love Le Guin, and was overjoyed when I saw her newest book was about one of my favorite subjects! Having read parts of The Aeneid in Latin in high school and college, I was prepared to be nitpicking and disappointed at the inaccuracies, and it was only that this WAS Le Guin that I opened the
I was not disappointed, and I was not nitpicking, either. If I was a Latin teacher, I would have my students reading this book (or at least excerpts from it) to help them understand the Latin religion and their treatment of household gods and the sacred places.
Le Guin brings a new path to the story-telling process (which I won't spoil for you), allowing Lavinia to tell us her story from an odd angle. I enjoyed that almost as much as I was fascinated by the details of Latin life.
Show More
book. I was not disappointed, and I was not nitpicking, either. If I was a Latin teacher, I would have my students reading this book (or at least excerpts from it) to help them understand the Latin religion and their treatment of household gods and the sacred places.
Le Guin brings a new path to the story-telling process (which I won't spoil for you), allowing Lavinia to tell us her story from an odd angle. I enjoyed that almost as much as I was fascinated by the details of Latin life.
Show Less
LibraryThing member storyjunkie
Understated, and oddly meditative, given the war in the middle. I liked the forays into the nature of storytelling, stories, and reality. Lavinia is that unusual combination of admirable and honestly flawed heroine. For a self-titled story, the focus is often elsewhere, with Lavinia's eyes as the
Show More
lens not necessarily the subject. Show Less
LibraryThing member bkswrites
I went to look at this book mostly because I write in the voices of Bible characters, and because I've never failed to be impressed with LeGuin. I had just torn myself away from the paperback, trying to talk myself out of buying it after reading the first chapter, but on the way back from the
I finished reading it some weeks ago, but haven't been able to find a better place for the volume than my nightstand. OK, some of it was a little magical for my taste, but even that gave me what felt like an authentic window on the mindset of a culture that far precedes mine. But those parts taught me how people of her time might have thought, and in ways that I could not have grasped from pedagogy of any sort (and I did take Latin, way back).
I really cared about Lavinia. I really had to work to let her live in her culture and not demand the understandings of mine. I've been known to lecture my contemporaries on how people of the cultures represented in the Bible probably understood the "supernatural" events narrated there in a very different way than we (at least adults) do looking back through our scientifically ground lenses. But LeGuin let Lavinia tell us, show us, how much easier it was to understand things from her viewpoint. I'm awfully glad she did.
Show More
restroom, I found a first-printing hardcover in the deep-discount bin. I think it was meant for me. I finished reading it some weeks ago, but haven't been able to find a better place for the volume than my nightstand. OK, some of it was a little magical for my taste, but even that gave me what felt like an authentic window on the mindset of a culture that far precedes mine. But those parts taught me how people of her time might have thought, and in ways that I could not have grasped from pedagogy of any sort (and I did take Latin, way back).
I really cared about Lavinia. I really had to work to let her live in her culture and not demand the understandings of mine. I've been known to lecture my contemporaries on how people of the cultures represented in the Bible probably understood the "supernatural" events narrated there in a very different way than we (at least adults) do looking back through our scientifically ground lenses. But LeGuin let Lavinia tell us, show us, how much easier it was to understand things from her viewpoint. I'm awfully glad she did.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
Le Guin gives a voice to the woman who becomes Aeneas's wife and helps to found Rome.
As I should have come to expect with a writer like Le Guin, this book was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a work of straightforward historical fiction with perhaps a little fantasy, the end of the The
Lavinia in this novel is not only a historical figure, but is also a fictional character, a character who knows she's a character and who even meets her author, Vergil, also a character in the book. From Vergil, she understands that she was such a minor character that she was barely more than a name, but since she did not die in The Aeneid, she is in effect immortal, and she determines to tell the story that Vergil did not. From Vergil, she also learns the fate of Aeneas--although it's deliberately unclear whether that fate was indeed historical or only fateful because the author had written it so--and armed with that foreknowledge, she is actually able to take control of her own life and shape her destiny.
Lavinia in Le Guin's hands is a fascinating character, a woman who is acutely aware of the position of women--especially the unmarried daughters of kings--in her society. What I admire about her is how she manipulates her own understanding of the world and knowledge of the future to get what she wants. She is not only predestined to marry Aeneas, but she wants to marry him, and when war breaks out over the question, she skillfully uses the people's fear of the gods and oracle to bring her own destiny about. Later, after Aeneas's death, she uses the same strategy to ensure that their son remains with her and she can raise him to adulthood, in direct contradiction of the prevailing traditions. Lavinia does not struggle against the society she is born into; she is a pragmatist who works within the confines of her society in order to transcend them. Yet, the reader must remain aware that she is not a real woman at all, but a character in a poem, an immortal character who transforms herself into author to write her own story, since her author failed to do so.
This was a wonderful character study as well as a multilayered reinterpretation of The Aeneid. Le Guin is always surprising and always worth reading.
Read in 2015 for the SFFCat.
As I should have come to expect with a writer like Le Guin, this book was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a work of straightforward historical fiction with perhaps a little fantasy, the end of the The
Show More
Aeneid told from a female point of view, something of a sequel to Jo Graham's Black Ships, which I read previously this year. And I got all that, but Le Guin has added an extra metafictional layer, which makes her book so much more complex and interesting.Lavinia in this novel is not only a historical figure, but is also a fictional character, a character who knows she's a character and who even meets her author, Vergil, also a character in the book. From Vergil, she understands that she was such a minor character that she was barely more than a name, but since she did not die in The Aeneid, she is in effect immortal, and she determines to tell the story that Vergil did not. From Vergil, she also learns the fate of Aeneas--although it's deliberately unclear whether that fate was indeed historical or only fateful because the author had written it so--and armed with that foreknowledge, she is actually able to take control of her own life and shape her destiny.
Lavinia in Le Guin's hands is a fascinating character, a woman who is acutely aware of the position of women--especially the unmarried daughters of kings--in her society. What I admire about her is how she manipulates her own understanding of the world and knowledge of the future to get what she wants. She is not only predestined to marry Aeneas, but she wants to marry him, and when war breaks out over the question, she skillfully uses the people's fear of the gods and oracle to bring her own destiny about. Later, after Aeneas's death, she uses the same strategy to ensure that their son remains with her and she can raise him to adulthood, in direct contradiction of the prevailing traditions. Lavinia does not struggle against the society she is born into; she is a pragmatist who works within the confines of her society in order to transcend them. Yet, the reader must remain aware that she is not a real woman at all, but a character in a poem, an immortal character who transforms herself into author to write her own story, since her author failed to do so.
This was a wonderful character study as well as a multilayered reinterpretation of The Aeneid. Le Guin is always surprising and always worth reading.
Read in 2015 for the SFFCat.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Antheras
"All my life since Aeneas’ death might seem a weaving torn out of the loom unfinished, a shapeless tangle of threads making nothing, but it is not so; for my mind returns as the shuttle returns always to the starting place, finding the pattern, going on with it."
Lavinia, the daughter of King
The arrival of the ships marks the meeting of Lavinia’s story with Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid. While Virgil’s poem tells Aeneas’ story, Lavinia herself is mentioned only once – on the day before his landing in Latinum when her hair is veiled by a ghost fire, an omen for the coming war. In Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin gives voice to an invisible heroine, brings to life an ancient world and creates a powerful companion to one of western literature’s greatest works.
Lavinia is a book of love and war, ritual and duty. Le Guin has crafted a fascinating story of Lavinia’s life in the Regia (the women’s quarters in a great house), filled with her duties as the only daughter of a noble house: keeping the storerooms; joining in the rituals of worship in the atrium; and keeping the peace between a mother driven mad with grief and a father quick to punishment. Well-researched with epic battles and many interwoven threads, Le Guin has captured the spirit of Virgil’s work and presented it faithfully in her own measured, lyric prose. Le Guin’s Lavinia is a strong, fascinating woman, with a tale to rival any hero of old.
Lavinia, the daughter of King
Show More
Latinus and Queen Amata, enjoyed a typical girlhood as the daughter of a nobleman in the time before the founding of Rome. A life of peace and freedom that is, until the day she saw a line of great, black ships coming up the Tiber from the sea. Her mother has determined that she marry her kinsman Turnus, but the omen Lavinia received at the sacred springs tells that she is destined to marry a foreigner and start a bitter war. These ships presage the epic war for a kingdom and the founding of a great new empire, with Lavinia herself as the prize.The arrival of the ships marks the meeting of Lavinia’s story with Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid. While Virgil’s poem tells Aeneas’ story, Lavinia herself is mentioned only once – on the day before his landing in Latinum when her hair is veiled by a ghost fire, an omen for the coming war. In Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin gives voice to an invisible heroine, brings to life an ancient world and creates a powerful companion to one of western literature’s greatest works.
Lavinia is a book of love and war, ritual and duty. Le Guin has crafted a fascinating story of Lavinia’s life in the Regia (the women’s quarters in a great house), filled with her duties as the only daughter of a noble house: keeping the storerooms; joining in the rituals of worship in the atrium; and keeping the peace between a mother driven mad with grief and a father quick to punishment. Well-researched with epic battles and many interwoven threads, Le Guin has captured the spirit of Virgil’s work and presented it faithfully in her own measured, lyric prose. Le Guin’s Lavinia is a strong, fascinating woman, with a tale to rival any hero of old.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LarissaBookGirl
As the daughter of a King, and an only child, it is Lavinia's duty to marry. Although presented with many suitors, there seems to be only one choice; Turnus, a neighbouring King who is both youthful and handsome. However an oracle foretells a different choice of husband for Lavinia; a choice that
When Lavinia is eighteen she travels to Albunea, a sacred place, to seek guidance. There she meets a man who will change her life. He offers her guidance, prophecy and hope. He is a man responsible for giving her life, a name, but no voice. He is a shadow, once a poet, but now a dying man, who has yet to be born.
Lavinia is but a background character, a bit part in a greater story of the exploits of men and gods. She existed only as a daughter, wife and mother of great men, of Kings. But now she speaks, giving herself a voice, a life filled with myth, history, war and love.
This is a book you will either love or hate. The only thing missing from Lavinia is Chapters, but how do you divide a life, section memories? Lavinia is unique, beautifully written and highly creative. A story that stays with you long after the last word is read.
Show More
leads to war.When Lavinia is eighteen she travels to Albunea, a sacred place, to seek guidance. There she meets a man who will change her life. He offers her guidance, prophecy and hope. He is a man responsible for giving her life, a name, but no voice. He is a shadow, once a poet, but now a dying man, who has yet to be born.
Lavinia is but a background character, a bit part in a greater story of the exploits of men and gods. She existed only as a daughter, wife and mother of great men, of Kings. But now she speaks, giving herself a voice, a life filled with myth, history, war and love.
This is a book you will either love or hate. The only thing missing from Lavinia is Chapters, but how do you divide a life, section memories? Lavinia is unique, beautifully written and highly creative. A story that stays with you long after the last word is read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TheLostEntwife
I'm going to admit right now, I'm not very familiar with Virgil's Aeneid. It's not exactly "light" reading, and I'm feeling good for having just conquered Beowulf for the first time. That said, I was still insanely interested in Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin when I saw that it was on a list for one of
In language that, for all it's strange names and odd places, is quite simple to read, Ursula Le Guin takes us through the poet's (Virgil's) vision of Latinum and Lavinia. Lavinia's voice is quiet and thoughtful, dictating very precisely her love of the truly pious, which she defines toward the beginning of the book so you are made very aware of what she is looking for. There is fighting, but second-hand retelling of the fighting so the book does not focus on the sensation of it. There's intrigue and love and desire. There's a story of respect between fathers and daughters and wives and husbands. And most of all - this book tells a side of a story that doesn't get told by Virgil, and does it well.
Le Guin did a beautiful job with her research and the writing is really spectacular. This was the first book I've read by her and I'll be seeking out her fantasy novels - if this is any indication, I'll gladly live in any world she has designed.
Show More
the best books based off of literary classics.In language that, for all it's strange names and odd places, is quite simple to read, Ursula Le Guin takes us through the poet's (Virgil's) vision of Latinum and Lavinia. Lavinia's voice is quiet and thoughtful, dictating very precisely her love of the truly pious, which she defines toward the beginning of the book so you are made very aware of what she is looking for. There is fighting, but second-hand retelling of the fighting so the book does not focus on the sensation of it. There's intrigue and love and desire. There's a story of respect between fathers and daughters and wives and husbands. And most of all - this book tells a side of a story that doesn't get told by Virgil, and does it well.
Le Guin did a beautiful job with her research and the writing is really spectacular. This was the first book I've read by her and I'll be seeking out her fantasy novels - if this is any indication, I'll gladly live in any world she has designed.
Show Less
LibraryThing member birthsister
I had hoped for a feminist retelling in the same vein as Mists of Avalon and Firebrand. While I'm sure that's the spirit that was intended, this book felt flat and uninspiring. While Le Guin's gift with prose made it readable, her attention to irrelevant details made it tedious. If you want a book
Show More
about pre-Roman religious rites and a laundry list of casualties of war, I would highly recommend the book. Otherwise, you'll be mostly disappointed. Show Less
LibraryThing member quigui
First and foremost I have to say that Ursula K. Le Guin is one of my favourite authors (if not THE favourite). I bought this book without knowing what it was about. Her name on the cover was enough. And it didn't disappoint.
Different from her other works, Lavinia is based on the Aeneid, telling the
Lavinia is a love story in essence, but it is also much more than that. It's about family and tradition, war and betrayal, and about giving voice to a character that had none. What did I like about this book? I loved the slight non-linearity of it. I loved the metafiction aspect of it. I loved that despite knowing what was going to happen in the end, I still wanted to know how it happened. I truly recommend this book.
Different from her other works, Lavinia is based on the Aeneid, telling the
Show More
story of Lavinia, to whom Virgil devoted little space. Would I like it better had I read the masterpiece? Maybe, but I enjoyed discovering bit by bit the story of Lavinia and Aeneas.Lavinia is a love story in essence, but it is also much more than that. It's about family and tradition, war and betrayal, and about giving voice to a character that had none. What did I like about this book? I loved the slight non-linearity of it. I loved the metafiction aspect of it. I loved that despite knowing what was going to happen in the end, I still wanted to know how it happened. I truly recommend this book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member thelorelei
"Lavinia" is a thoughtful exploration of Vergil's shadowy wisp of a character, the daughter of the king of Latium, as introduced in "The Aeneid" as the fought-for bride of Aeneas. In the poem she has no lines and is not given much character beyond "tearing her golden tresses" at her mother's
Well no more. Le Guin, with deep love and respect for Vergil, decided to delve into the character and her world, suggesting what her life must have been like before the remnants of Trojan society came straggling up their river. First of all, says Lavinia, her hair is dark and always has been. Including even small details such as these, Lavinia tells us the story of her life, gently refuting the poet's portrayal of her while admitting she understands why she may have been perceived as nothing more than a meek, obedient daughter.
The writing here is like nothing I've ever read from Le Guin. It is much less dry than her usual style, and more immediately accessible. I've grown accustomed to switching on a certain mode in my brain for processing the dryness when sitting down to read Le Guin, but I found that wasn't necessary at all in this case. There is also a beautiful quality of airiness and earthiness to the atmosphere of the narrative; the whole imagined environment practically hums with life, and Lavinia is a deeply sympathetic and charismatic narrator.
The book is an exquisite portrait of Italy before Rome and before the Greek and Latin gods merged. It is also a meditation on gender roles in peace and especially in war, and observes the effects of warfare on the social fabric of a previously peaceful society. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Show More
funeral.Well no more. Le Guin, with deep love and respect for Vergil, decided to delve into the character and her world, suggesting what her life must have been like before the remnants of Trojan society came straggling up their river. First of all, says Lavinia, her hair is dark and always has been. Including even small details such as these, Lavinia tells us the story of her life, gently refuting the poet's portrayal of her while admitting she understands why she may have been perceived as nothing more than a meek, obedient daughter.
The writing here is like nothing I've ever read from Le Guin. It is much less dry than her usual style, and more immediately accessible. I've grown accustomed to switching on a certain mode in my brain for processing the dryness when sitting down to read Le Guin, but I found that wasn't necessary at all in this case. There is also a beautiful quality of airiness and earthiness to the atmosphere of the narrative; the whole imagined environment practically hums with life, and Lavinia is a deeply sympathetic and charismatic narrator.
The book is an exquisite portrait of Italy before Rome and before the Greek and Latin gods merged. It is also a meditation on gender roles in peace and especially in war, and observes the effects of warfare on the social fabric of a previously peaceful society. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Show Less
LibraryThing member santhony
In Vergil’s Aeneid, the Trojan War hero Aeneas wanders the Mediterranean after destruction of Troy, ultimately landing upon the west coast of Italy, where he marries the daughter of a local king and founds what would later become Rome. The king’s daughter was named Lavinia and in this novel,
This is a short work, written in very florid prose. The author paints almost a dream-like, ethereal aura around Lavinia, as she converses with the ghost of Vergil and even posits her role as a fictional being. The first half of the book is VERY slow, however the pace quickens upon the arrival of the Trojan hero.
Do not purchase this novel based upon any affinity you may have with the author or her writings. I very much enjoy her science fiction offerings (her fantasy, not so much), but there is nothing in this book that would cause you to suspect that it was written by Ursula LeGuin. Can’t recommend.
Show More
the author creates a life for Lavinia and the people of her kingdom.This is a short work, written in very florid prose. The author paints almost a dream-like, ethereal aura around Lavinia, as she converses with the ghost of Vergil and even posits her role as a fictional being. The first half of the book is VERY slow, however the pace quickens upon the arrival of the Trojan hero.
Do not purchase this novel based upon any affinity you may have with the author or her writings. I very much enjoy her science fiction offerings (her fantasy, not so much), but there is nothing in this book that would cause you to suspect that it was written by Ursula LeGuin. Can’t recommend.
Show Less
LibraryThing member redswirl3
I enjoyed the beginning where the poet Virgil has conversations with his character that he created as he dies. Lavina also muses on whether she exists at all or is she only inside the mind of the poet? I like the way LeGuin fills out and develops Lavina into a strong character that was over looked
Show More
by the poet Virgil. Lavinia is a wonderful book dealing with reality, power, and love from the point of view of a women. The book describes the daily life and scenery of pre-Rome Italy beautifully. I was swept away and into the lives of the characters found in this lovely historical fiction novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member veracite
I enjoyed this so much more than I expected. Le Guin is a wonderful story-teller. I did also enjoy picking those moments where her story-telling was crimped by canon, herded and fenced by sticking to the Aeneid. She seemed brusque at those points.
It's disappointing that, in the end, Ascanius'
It's disappointing that, in the end, Ascanius'
Show More
weakness is his homosexuality although I expect you could more charitably compare his fictional treatment to Amata's, whose inconsolable bereavement was her tragedy. Show Less
LibraryThing member kelly_m_d
I really tried to get into this book. I did finish it, but the story jumped around so much that I felt like I lost the story in it. Maybe the book was just over my head or just not my type, but I found it more confusing than entertaining. I did really enjoy the storyline, it was just hard for me to
Show More
follow it. Show Less
LibraryThing member saraswati27
I think that Le Guin is a master, let's just start with that. I haven't loved everything she writes. But many things of hers resonate with me, and when they do catch my heart, her books are among the best.
Lavinia is the story of history, from the point of view of those whose stories rarely get
By looking at history from the other side, it also asks what violence means, and how violence affects us in our families and relationships.
If you really like Lavinia, I'd highly recommend Sherri S. Tepper's "The Gate to Women's country".
Lavinia is the story of history, from the point of view of those whose stories rarely get
Show More
told. The story pulls you through history and mythology asking what these stories really mean.By looking at history from the other side, it also asks what violence means, and how violence affects us in our families and relationships.
If you really like Lavinia, I'd highly recommend Sherri S. Tepper's "The Gate to Women's country".
Show Less
LibraryThing member yosbooks
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It probably would have had a much greater impact if I was familiar with Vergil's The Aeneid.
LibraryThing member debs4jc
In the Iliad there is a character named Lavina, the daughter of a king who is destined to become the wife of Aeneas, the Trojan hero who help found the Roman empire. This story masterfully takes us into the life of a young girl in early Italy, a young girl who has dreams and visions and whose own
Show More
passions affect the story that unfolds. Lavina's character is filled with humaness that the reader can relate to, and this ancient story is made fresh and accessible for an entirely new audience It made me want to read the Iliad again, and any story that draws one to the ancient classics can't be a bad thing! Show Less
LibraryThing member Audacity88
It's essentially a popularization of the Aeneid, effected through a retelling by a minor character who LeGuin makes somewhat of an outsider to the central action of the story. LeGuin's take on the story can hardly match the gravity of the original, and on its own it seems merely a pale shadow. What
Show More
I do think it would be useful for is as a concurrent complement to reading Virgil, since LeGuin succeeds in making his often distant characters feel real. Show Less
LibraryThing member MarysGirl
This is a lovely, lyrical story by one of my favorite authors Ursula K. Le Guin (you can read an extensive interview I conducted with her at my website.) The story is Lavinia's - the daughter of a Latin king, who, in Virgil's Aeneid, doesn't even have a line of dialog. In the tradition of Anita
It's a quiet, thoughtful voice. Lavinia is totally overshadowed by her mad mother and bullying suitors, but makes her way in and out of the shadows with the guidance of "her poet" -- a shade she met at a holy place who sang the story of her life and gave her the strength to cleave to her own path. Le Guin gives us an insight into Bronze Age Italy, a wild place of tribes, nature gods and cattle raiding. I highly recommend this book.
Show More
Diamant's The Red Tent, Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice.It's a quiet, thoughtful voice. Lavinia is totally overshadowed by her mad mother and bullying suitors, but makes her way in and out of the shadows with the guidance of "her poet" -- a shade she met at a holy place who sang the story of her life and gave her the strength to cleave to her own path. Le Guin gives us an insight into Bronze Age Italy, a wild place of tribes, nature gods and cattle raiding. I highly recommend this book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member isln_reads
Kirkus Review starred (February 15, 2008)
Le Guin (Powers, 2007, etc.) departs from her award-winning fantasy and science-fiction novels to amplify a story told only glancingly in Virgil's epic The Aeneid. The story is that of the eponymous princess of Latium (a royal city before Rome existed),
Le Guin (Powers, 2007, etc.) departs from her award-winning fantasy and science-fiction novels to amplify a story told only glancingly in Virgil's epic The Aeneid. The story is that of the eponymous princess of Latium (a royal city before Rome existed),
Show More
promised by her parents, King Latinus and Queen Amata, to neighboring Rutilian king Turnus (who is Amata's nephew). But omens decree otherwise, and Lavinia weds Trojan warrior-adventurer Aeneas, a bereaved and conflicted husband, son and father who will, over the years, earn the initially reluctant Lavinia's undying respect and love. Though this unlikely heroine receives only token mention in Virgil's original, Le Guin brings her to vibrant life as a dutiful virgin whose world is circumscribed by daily routines; who is the uncooperative cynosure of several suitors' eyes; and who eventually distances herself from the misrule of her stepson Ascanius (Aeneas's successor), biding her time until the new metropolis of Rome is made worthy of its intrepid founder. Lavinia's inner strength emerges in dreamlike 'conversations' with the poet who created her, and in her intuitive understanding of her father's just rule, her husband's justifiable ambitions and her own unending obligations. Le Guin has researched this ancient world assiduously, and her measured, understated prose captures with equal skill the permutations of established ritual and ceremony and the sensations of the battlefield ('The snarling trumpets rang out again. A group of horsemen far out in the fields moved forward in a solid mass like a shadow across the ripening crops...through the hot slanting light full of dust'). Arguably her best novel, and an altogether worthy companion volume to one of the Western world's greatest stories. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Mythopoeic Awards (Finalist — Adult Literature — 2009)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2009)
Language
Original publication date
2008-04
Physical description
288 p.; 9.3 inches
ISBN
0151014248 / 9780151014248