The Satyricon (Meridian classics)
by Petronius, Seneca
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Book Summary Information
Author: Petronius, SenecaTranslator: William Arrowsmith
Edition: Paperback
Audio: Latin (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1983-11-01
ISBN: 0452010055
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Plume
Book Reviews of The Satyricon (Meridian classics)
Book Review: A first rate translation
Summary: 4 Stars
Mr. Arrowsmith's translation of The Satyricon is flowing, even throughout, and accompanied by very useful notes. I've read more technically accurate translations of this work, but they sacrifice much because the genre of comedy is dynamic, in the case of Petronius' work also deeply bound up with the language of the time, and a literal translation from one language to another across some two millennia is rarely successful. Arrowsmith explains his liberties with the translation convincingly in his notes, and also with the results of his translation itself. It's a funny book.
I certainly dissent from the opinion of the venerable New York Times. "One of the comic masterpieces in the literature of the Western world" the Satyricon is absolutely not. It is funny, it is a valuable artifact of Nero's Rome, it is an important source of information about life, living and loving in the Rome of Seneca from a viewpoint and genre of literature with which we would be a little less culturally rich had this work not survived at least in part.
Students of antiquity needn't regard this as a primary work in their collection, but this affordable translation of a rollicking comedy of decadence and debauchery is at very least a good tertiary work that just happens to be a humorous read translated masterfully. It is worth the price of a good used book.
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