Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. A Rutulian king named Turnus had the hots for her and felt upstaged when Aeneas swooped in, and that–ie, she–is what set off the bloody wars. BUT. It's a brilliant concept; she takes a character mentioned in passing in Virgil's Aeneid, the wife of Aeneas, and creates a story around her. Refresh and try again. “You would get more out of this,” she kept saying to me, since there was all this, you know, ancient and Roman stuff in it. It’s always nice to have something to start out with, rather than the horrible blank page. Sh. So does Livy. Besides, she met the shade of Virgil when she was a girl. Must ponder more…. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills. When Latinus engages Lavinia to marry Aeneas instead, the goddess Juno, who hates the Trojans, drives Turnus mad. Instead, the story keeps nervously. Having now read "Aeneid" in its translated entirety, I can't really fault myself for not remembering Lavinia. Yet without him would I even have a name? More accessible, yes, as my wife said. You think it's going somewhere, then it's just over." . We give some of them names - Mars of the fields and the war, Vesta the fire, Ceres the grain, Mother Tellus the earth, the Penates of the storehouse. Having now read "Aeneid" in its translated entirety, I can't really fault myself for not remembering Lavinia. Change ). It was a story told by someone who remembered facts, places, names, etc. I think I'm incapable of disliking a Le Guin book. Hence, LeGuin has Lavinia and Aeneas performing altar duties every few pages. In fact, had she focused on the 3 years that Lavinia and Aeneas were together, and made that the whole novel, she could have created near-unbearable tension as we build up to Aeneas' death. Lavinia's mother, Amata, commits suicide when she realizes her daughter won't marry Turnus. (Mr Crotchety: You get a fistbump merely for reading the Aeneid.). Here is the genius of the conceit: Aeneas survives the sack of Troy and escapes with his father and son (but not his wife, who perishes in Troy) to wander the Mediterranean. But there was very little plot. I don't read a lot of YA books and can't say for sure if they are similar to this book, but during the reading I was thinking - this is how YA should be: with deep meaning, with characters as model roles to learn from, and if it's historical - help to learn something you won't maybe sit down to read yourself. In epic, the worst women are pure, unadulterated evil--monsters like Scylla, Charybdis, and the Sirens. ", before it, is a tale of a wandering warrior, capricious gods and inexorable fate. When I am in the middle of a piece, if I see that I am using too many cliches, I usually do not throw the baby out with the bath water and start from scratch. It was a story told by someone who remembered facts, places, names, etc. She is pursued by many suitors, but the great warrior Turnus, lord of a nearby kingdom, appears most eligible for her hand. I'm a huge fan of Ursula K. LeGuin, but this is not her best book. . The novel is called Lavinia, and I just finished it. Lavinia's character was handled with grace and imagination. Well, a well-known author named Ursula LeGuin decided to pick one of the most obscure but potentially interesting characters of the whole Aeneid and give you Lavinia and Aeneas. Aeneas' hands on the leggy ram-lamb were calm and gentle, his knife stroke sudden and sure. Like you could say the Australian aboriginal dreamtime was real, because those people used it to navigate their world, the mythic world of Vesta, Juno, and Mars was real because the Latins' mental model of the world revolved around them. Lavinia was refreshing. Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, is a pawn in the epic, the virgin who must marry Aeneas. So my wife read it. Virgil only mentions her in a line or two. Being a lady classicist often requires willful acts of cognitive dissonance. More accessible, yes, as my wife said. Jens: Very perceptive! It's a brilliant concept; she takes a character mentioned in passing in Virgil's Aeneid, the wife of Aeneas, and creates a story around her. Ugghh, it hurts me to “only” rate Le Guin 3 stars, but it probably has to do with my mile high, unattainable expectations. Wonderful idea, not quite a book. Advice? Catullus 66. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. He has a torrid affair with Dido, the wily queen of Carthage, but leaves her and she burns herself (presaging, I might add, what Scipio’s–and Aeneas’–heir will one day do to all of Carthage). But she should have jumped in with both feet and defined a whole world, as only she can do. Even a poet cannot get everything right. While discussing this with my husband, he said, "Isn't that just like life? But Virgil died, so the epic concludes with Aeneas killing Turnus in a fit of rage, despite the young man's plea for mercy. You know, a Generations thing. His first wife was killed during the sack of Troy, though Aeneas escaped with his son and father and took a remnant of Trojans to seek a new home. 58 LAVINIA'S BLUSH: VERGIL, AENEID 12.64-70 food for thought. As depressing as that sounds, it's still a good book. LeGuin's novel certainly enhances our understanding of. Trojans and Italians do battle and various heroes are slain, treaties broken, and prophecies ignored. And this is the dilemma of Lavinia: Fantastic conceit for a novel! The Hannibal Blog has of late been exploring what makes good storytelling good. Ursala seems like a pretty hip 79 year old. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of. Enter Lavinia. This makes reading epic a challenging experience for any woman who is looking for more than just a rollicking adventure story.

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