Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Satyricon and Seneca the Apocolocyntosis by Petronius, Petronius Arbiter, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, J. P. Sullivan ISBN: 0-14-044489-0 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1986 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Darkly Fascinating
Comment: It was not easy being a poet and scholar in Nero's day. Since the Emperor regarded himself as the poet par excellence, everyone else was ultimately disposable. Both Petronius and Seneca were ultimately requested to commit suicide and did so, lest the Praetorian Guard were called in to "assist" them.
In the earlier days of Nero's rule, when there was some possibility that his would be one of the rare enlightened reigns, Petronius and Seneca joined Nero in a regular after-dinner literary society where the humor was frequently raunchy and the sex more often than not perverted.
The SATYRICON was originally a fairly long episodic spoof of the ODYSSEY: its hero offends the God Priapus by ransacking his temple and is stricken with impotence. He and his friends and bedmates wander through Italy recounting their adventures. The only fairly intact sequence tells of a dinner by a nouveau-riche merchant named Trimalchio who holds an elegant banquet but whose base-born origins are always showing. All the rest of the episodes are fragmentary, though not without interest.
Seneca takes the recently poisoned Emperor Claudius down a peg by spoofing his deification. Starting with Julius Caesar, the Romans turned many of their leaders into gods upon their demise. Claudius -- who was by no means the nice guy portrayed in the Robert Graves books -- gets short shrift in the underworld. A clue: The title is usually translated as "The Pumpkinification of Claudius." Seneca was treading carefully here, as Nero's mother was Claudius' wife and is generally considered to have been the one who poisoned him.
These are not works that you can sit down and read as if they were novels. The introductions are not only helpful, but mandatory to understanding what follows. Both works, along with the works of Lucan, are essential to understanding this darkly fascinating period of Roman history.
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic that should still be read....
Comment: This book, when, as here it is translated well (i.e. in a fashion that renders it valid to a modern reader as opposed to one in which it is more a word-for-word translation from the Latin), is one of the funniest books of which I know. Roman literature typically seems derivative-- less real, less well-thought out than Greek stuff-- this book is one of the major exceptions to this rule.
If you know of this book and want to read it, this translation here is a good place to start. This is the first novel (whatever that means!), and just an all-around good time....
Rating: 5
Summary: Do not read and drive!
Comment: It may be tempting, but my experience with reading this book and operating a motor vehicle came out badly. There was a red light and obviously the book was good enough that putting it down to go twelve blocks was unthinkable, but it ended up being decidedly unpleasant for myself and all involved. I would suggest carving out a couple of hours where you don't need to leave the house for this hilarious mock epic about one man's quest to regain his erection.
 |
Title: The Sixteen Satires (Penguin Classics) by Juvenal, Peter Green, Wendell Vernon Clausen ISBN: 0140447040 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
 |
Title: Horace: Satires and Epistles/Persius: Satires by Quintus. Horatius Flaccus, Niall Rudd, Horace ISBN: 0140442790 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: March, 1982 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: The Golden Ass: Or Metamorphoses (Penguin Classics) by Apuleius, E.J. Kenney ISBN: 0140435905 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome by Cornelius Tacitus, Michael Grant ISBN: 0140440607 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: June, 1956 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: Makers of Rome: Nine Lives by Plutarch by Plutarch, Ian Scott-Kilvert ISBN: 0140441581 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1965 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
