Virgil

Latin text, with Latin-English vocabulary and notes in English. This edition, originally published in 1953 in the admirable Methuen Classical Texts series, has been in print ever since. It's longevity is deserved; for it remains a very fine edition, manageable at different levels of attainment. Maguinness had chiefly in mind students at sixth-form or early university level but, for the benefit of less practised students taking GCSE or in their second year of Latin bugun at University, he wisely included a Vocabulary (marked with syllable lengths to tie in with his very useful section on scansion and reading aloud) and a considerable amount of fairly elementary linguistic matter in the Notes. The Introduction gives an outline of the background knowledge needed by a beginner in Virgilian studies. For a succinct and always level-headed approach to the "Aeneid", this remains a splendid edition - one for which more advanced Virgilians still have every reason to be thankful; and Book XII gives an excellent flavour of the whole epic and the meaning of its constantly enigmatic closure.