There is a terrific interview/article with Ursula Le Guin in the Wall Street Journal, discussing her new mythic/historical novel, Lavinia. The novel follows the life of Princess Lavinia, the very fleeting figure of Aeneas' second wife in Virgil's heroic epic, The Aeneid. Although the original epic has only a handful of lines concerning Lavinia, Le Guin decided she needed much more attention. As explained in the WSJ review, Le Guin "saw in Lavinia a character in search of a writer. Virgil didn't allow Lavinia to speak a single word in his poem. Here, Ms. Le Guin thought, was a woman who needed a voice across the centuries. So she imagined Lavinia: dutiful but strong-willed, romantic but shrewd." You can read an excerpt from the novel here.
There is also an interesting review of the novel by Yvonne Zip of The Christian Science Monitor here: "In one of the more impressive displays of feminist reconstruction since Margaret Atwood wrested Penelope out of the hands of Homer, National Book Award-winner Le Guin has rewritten the last six books of Virgil's epic poem to create a rich life of the mind for the Latin princess. Unlike Atwood's Penelopiad, the novel, as Le Guin writes in an afterword, is a 'love offering,' and she writes with great affection for both the poet and his hero."
Also, if you've not yet read The Aeneid, and don't want to follow Le Guin's example of translating ten lines a day, consider getting hold of Robert Fagels' masterful new translation of this mythic classic. It's a first rate translation -- written in a clear and elegant English but maintaining Virgil's wonderful cadence. It's also a great swashbuckling tale, following the adventures of a Trojan War hero. (There is one cool part with Lavinia, where her hair catches on fire but doesn't burn -- a flaming omen of a coming war). On a side note, Robert Fagels died recently -- a sad loss to the world of classical literature.
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