Civil War

Lucan's great poem, Pharsalia, recounts events surrounding the decisive battle fought near Pharsalus in 48 B.C. during the civil war between the forces of Pompey and Julius Caesar. Though the subject of this unfinished masterpiece is historical, many of its features are characteristic of epic poetry: Rousing battle scenes; tales of witches, monsters, and miracle; detailed catalogues; intricate similes; and speeches with a high degree of rhetorical elegance. However, Lucan's deft mix of humor and horror, of political satire, literary parody, history, and epic is entirely his own. Jane Wilson Joyce's superb translation conveys the drama and poetry of the original. Her use of natural English rhythms in a loose six-beat line comes close to matching the original Latin hexameters, wile her language preserves Lucan's sequence of images. An enlightening introduction, notes, and a full glossary augment the translation.… (more)

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LibraryThing member KaisersCulture

Two weeks ago I happened upon this; I had no idea of its existence before-- an 18th Cent. translation into heroic couplets of Lucan's epic "Pharsalia." English poet Nicholas Rowe here rivals Dryden's magisterial version of the "Aeneid"-- for fans of Alexander Pope, Dryden, and the Romans this is a

must-have. Dear Everyman Library, PLEASE get this back in print so I can get more copies! I don't want that silly prose version from Oxford World Classics!

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LibraryThing member paperloverevolution

I'm actually reading the Robert Graves translation, which I was too lazy to import manually. I love his informal introductions. So far, it's very enjoyable.

LibraryThing member sashame

A dark, surreal, fictionalized epic revealing the psychological breaks in the Roman national consciousness.

LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

Marcus Lucanus (AD 39 - 65) was a rich Roman who penned this long poem about the Pompey/Caesar civil war as the ornament of his brief life. Once an intimate of the emperor Nero, he was involved in the Piso led conspiracy to rid Rome of that unfortunate emperor. He was forced to commit suicide by

Nero, after implicating other conspirators. Now, to the poem. Sadly, this is a prose redaction of the Latin text into English prose by the English poet and novelist, Robert Graves, and is, I am sure accurate about language and emphasis. Though incomplete due to the death of the author, it is worth the read, though the ISBN given here is of a later publication by Penguin books. As a reader, I found it to be a pleasant experience.

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