L. P. Wilkinson – författare

Ovid was, despite his faults, what Macaulay called him, 'a good fellow'. But he was also a wit, the product of an age of refinement. More important, he was an artist with conscious mastery of a great range of literary artifice; his poetry has a studied movement, a grace, a rich and patterned surface, a music, that have appealed to readers and writers with an ear for ' technique' ever since. In this 1962 volume, Mr Wilkinson writes to communicate his own evident enjoyment and understanding of Ovid's fortunes. A life tells what is known of the poet, and serves as a framework to the account of the poetry. This book, an abridgement of Ovid Recalled, is designed particularly for those who have no Latin: no special knowledge is assumed, and the ample quotation is translated into heroic couplets. The result is a delightful and serviceable introduction to Ovid.

In this volume, first published in 1945, Mr Wilkinson writes primarily for students of the classics who are not Horatian specialists. His book falls easily within the scope of those who can read any Latin at all - and even of those who cannot, for most passages quoted are also translated. Horace - for Mr Wilkinson - is the poet of the Odes and the Epodes - the incomparable genius of the lyric form, and a sympathetic and engaging character into the bargain. He is especially concerned with Horace as the poetic craftsman. Like most Roman poets, Horace was not inventive in subject-matter: he generally wrote about what we now recognize as the eternal platitudes. But Mr Wilkinson focuses on the mastery of form, rhythm and cadence that have charmed readers for centuries.

This highly acclaimed book was, when it was first published in 1969, the first complete book in English devoted to the Georgics of Virgil, of which Mr Wilkinson provides a comprehensive survey. With careful scholarship and shrewd verbal and stylistic analysis combined with sober common sense, he deals with Virgil's early life, the conception of the poem and its composition and structure. He also examines the poem's intellectual ancestry, studies its literary, philosophic, political and agricultural aspects and finally deals with its fortunes from classical times to the present day. Prose translations of quoted passages make this book accessible to readers other than students of classics.