Ronald Knox's Lectures on Virgil's Aeneid: With Introduction and Critical Essays

This book provides Ronald Knox's unpublished lectures on Virgil's Aeneid, delivered at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1912. The lectures focus on the appreciation of the Aeneid and its essential and dominant characteristics, including Virgil's political and religious outlook, ideas of the afterlife, sense of romance and pathos, narrative style, sources, versification, and appreciation of scenery. Knox's interpretation of the relationship between Dido and Aeneas renders the question of whether Aeneas loved Dido redundant and portrays Aeneas more sympathetically than is currently fashionable. The additional introductory and critical essays by the contributors place the lectures in their historical and scholarly context and illustrate how Knox's distinctive approach might be developed to advantage.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 10 August 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This book presents Ronald Knox's previously unpublished lectures on Virgil's Aeneid, delivered at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1912 as part of a lecture course on Virgil. Written with Knox's customary incisiveness and frequent allusions to contemporary life, the lectures are devoted to appreciating the Aeneid and focus on what he called its "essential and dominant characteristics that make up its greatness." They delve into Virgil's political and religious outlook, ideas of the afterlife, sense of romance and pathos, narrative style, sources, versification, and appreciation of scenery. Knox's interpretation of the relationship between Dido and Aeneas renders the question of whether Aeneas loved Dido redundant and portrays Aeneas more sympathetically than is currently fashionable. The additional introductory and critical essays by the contributors place the lectures in their historical and scholarly context, highlight their enduring relevance, and illustrate how Ronald Knox's distinctive approach can still be developed to advantage. As Robert Speaight noted in his presidential address to the Virgil Society in 1958, "many of us who love our Virgil will now understand him better because Ronald Knox loved and understood him so well."

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350118287