The Aeneid

The Aeneid is a new translation and reformatting of the classic epic poem by Virgil, translated by Dr. Shadi Bartsch. Due out 16th Feb 2021 from Penguin Random House, it's 464 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.  It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

I'm a product of the public school system, but from a time period when the classical languages were taught as a matter of course (along with mathematics, science disciplines, etc). So in my seventh year of Latin, our semester exercise was to translate the first book of the Aeneid. I had and used the Loeb 2 volume translation originally by Fairclough which had a different bilingual layout with the Latin on the left side of the page and the translation on the right. It was emphatically not portable and the language was not very accessible (at least not to me, a teenager at the time).

Since most people who are evaluating a purchase of this translation are at least somewhat familiar with the Aeneid and its history, it's worthwhile to concentrate on the translation itself and the supporting material and notes, not the original material. This is definitely one of the more accessible translations I've seen - the language is understandable and feels natural. The translation has remained true to the literal meanings of course, but importantly, she's also taken care with the meter and rhythm of the poem (a not inconsiderable problem when one compares the compact elegance and subtlety of Latin compared with English which takes more time and word count to clearly state the same ideas - often two to three times as much). This translation does a good job of providing a close approximation of the meanings whilst staying true to the rhythms and style. The author expends some effort in the text provided to explain her choices and her plan with the translation.

In fact, the supportive material is very strong in this edition and includes a number of  maps, analyses, chapter notes, references, bibliography, and dramatis personae / glossary.

The Latin text is not included in this edition, so students of classical language will want to pick up a copy with line annotations to follow along in the original source material.

Recommended for students, readers of history, classics, language, library use, and similar. Despite being 2000 years old, it's surprisingly relevant for readers today. 

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.