W. A. Camps - Böcker

This work is addressed to students of Virgil and of literature in general, including those who may be approaching the "Aeneid" for the first time. It attempts through discussion of particular topics to convey a balanced impression of the nature of the poem as a whole.

This is a book for all readers of Homer, whether in translation or in the original. It attempts to characterize the poetic art of the Iliad and the Odyssey and to analyse in a simple way the reasons for its effectiveness.

Propertius, though his works are small in volume, is one of the foremost poets of the Augustan age and his writing has a certain appeal to modern tastes. Book II is especially suitable for the reader wanting a representative selection of Propertius' poetry. It stands on its own, having appeared in the first place as a separate collection; it reflects a distinct phase of the poet's activity (and of his emotional development); and it is the book which made his reputation. This edition is designed for the pocket of the university student, but it should find a wider audience among classicists of all ages. The introduction provides the necessary historical and critical background and relates Book II to the rest of the elegies; the notes are helpful and to the point; and the text has a reasonable minimum of apparatus. There are no modern editions of this size and scope.

This edition of Propertius Book III follows the general style and arrangement of Camps' editions of Books I and IV. Camps presents, without concealing difficulties and uncertainties, a fairly conservative but readable and coherent text, together with such annotation as may help the modern reader of Latin to understand the language and follow the thought of this difficult, much disputed, but very rewarding poet. While the book may be of interest to students and amateurs of Latin in general, the editor has had in mind the particular needs of undergraduates and of sixth forms. Of the twenty-five elegies which compose this book, all but two are related to the theme of love: but the treatment has become curiously remote and impersonal. After the first two books the touch is light, even cynical - except on the last two elegies, where the poet takes an embittered farewell of Cynthia. In his introduction Camps writes of the literary qualities of the poems and suggests some valid critical approaches for the modern reader.

In this edition of Propertius Book IV, Camps follows the general lines of his earlier edition of Book I (Cambridge, 1960). He has presented, without concealing difficulties and uncertainties, a fairly conservative but readable and coherent text, together with such annotation as may help the modern reader of Latin to understand the language and follow the thought of this difficult, much disputed, but very rewarding poet. While the book may be of interest to students and amateurs of Latin in general, the editor has had in mind the particular needs of undergraduates and of sixth forms. The notes are weighted differently from those in Butler and Barber's edition of 1933 and the text of that edition and from the Oxford text of 1960. As far as we know, this is the poet's last work. He has moved away from his earlier preoccupation with the theme of love and the eleven careful elegies that compose the present book are on a variety of subjects. Most are concerned with Roman antiquities. The last is an elaborate and celebrated epitaph on a lady of Roman nobility. But perhaps the poems likely to appeal most to a modern reader are the two in which Propertius recalls and exhibits in a new light, the figure of Cynthia, the declared inspiration of the elegies of Book I.

Propertius, though his works are small in volume, is one of the foremost poets of the Augustan age, and his writing has a certain appeal to modern tastes (witness the admiration of Ezra Pound). Book I is especially suitable for the reader wanting a representative selection of Propertius' poetry. It stands on its own, having appeared in the first place as a separate collection; it reflects a distinct phase of the poet's activity (and of his emotional development); and it is the book which made his reputation. This edition is designed for the pocket of the university student, but it should find a wider audience among classicists of all ages. The introduction provides the necessary historical and critical background and relates Book I to the rest of the elegies; the notes are helpful and to the point; and the text has a reasonable minimum of apparatus. There are no modern editions of this size and scope.