How best to approach meaningful reference works for literature? Or, how to combine textbook and reference book? There have been innumerable attempts, some more successful than others, over the last hundred years and more, yet there is always room for new ones. Approaches to even ancient literature change in accordance with shifting scholarly fashions so that constant reinterpretation has always been the norm. The process continues with this volume: it will prove an invaluable source of assistance and instruction for students especially, until it, too, is superseded by changing perceptions.
“In deciding the format of this volume I wanted to avoid the standard listing by author to be found in many literary histories, and which is already available in good up‐to‐date reference works such as the Oxford Classical Dictionary (1996)” (Hornblower and Spawforth, 2003) (RR 2003/352). But reference value is claimed, with justification, for this narrative handbook: it is systematically constructed throughout, and carries “bibliographical resources” (the term is used widely as websites are included) for 20 of the most significant authors. There is, too, a Chronological Table of Important Dates in Latin literature and History to ad 200 and a very comprehensive bibliography; this latter shows the continuing value of some earlier works such as the seminal Syme (1931), and including one title by my former tutor and another five by the senior lecturer in my degree course.
Like Caesar's Gaul, this work is divided into three parts. The first two, Periods and Genres, are more traditional in coverage; the third, Themes, introduces late 20th century approaches. Each part is then sub‐divided: the periods remain pretty well self‐defining, from early Republic to high Empire; the genres, likewise, although some eyebrows might be raised by a section on the novel: but the Satyrica of Petronius and Apuleius's Golden Ass certainly qualify within the genre. The themes are an interesting mixture: decline and nostalgia seems highly appropriate to modern Britain, sex and gender is inevitable nowadays, Romans and Others also has modern implications in a multi‐cultural society, as does Centre and Periphery in an increasingly devolved federal world.
This is primarily a narrative handbook, so the texts, all by leading academics in their various fields in British and American universities, are fundamental. They deal with their topics, as they must, in the first instance factually, but all discuss and analyse as well as describe, so that in addition to basic information there are also discussion and ideas. The level is senior school or undergraduate, although most of the content will also be valuable to students or specialists in other areas needing guidance on Latin literature. To help in that, all the quotations are given not only in the original Latin but also with literal English translations.
There is a serviceable index and, taking the narrative contents and the further references together, this book achieves its aims and will be a useful, if rather costly (although authoritative enough to give quite a few years' service) addition to many relevant educational or major reference collections.
