Word: virgilian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
These conspicuous absences prove the contrary of Marcus' suggestion that good writing is somehow a function of national power and prosperity and a product of the consensus that goes with them. The U.S. is represented not by Virgilian celebrators of the Great Society but by outsiders dog-paddling against the mainstream of American life. If American society is a success, no one would know it from this anthology. Unless it is Louis Auchincloss (unrepresented here), the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant has no laureate and, unless it is John O'Hara (also unrepresented), no candid friend. The voice...
...initials of Ennis' corps, A.V.C., are an acronym of the opening lines of the Aeneid-Arma virumque cano. Ennis is intended to be seen as Aeneas, founder of the Roman race after the fall of Troy. The mock heroics are well sustained, though Burgess now modestly sees the Virgilian parallel as a "tyro's method of giving his story a backbone," as Joyce used the Odyssey to underpin Ulysses. But Burgess is not Virgil any more than Joyce was Homer. His hero loses nothing by being a comic rather than a classic. He has also been given another...