This recent entry in OUP's ever-expanding Very Short Introduction series – the book is framed by differently ordered lists of the 382 then-current offerings (the 400 mark having since been passed) – is a model of concision. Compact enough to carry in one's pocket to read on public transport, it well serves its purpose as a sketch of the main areas of reasonable interest and provides readings of texts, with just a few quick brushstrokes, that are interesting even to scholars.
The very topic, ‘classical literature’, begs questions (what is ‘classical’? What is ‘literature’?), to which A. alludes in the single-page epilogue, which consists mostly of a quotation from Odyssey 8 with a reference to T.S. Eliot. The topic had been dispatched with aplomb already in the opening overview, ‘History, Genre, Text’. Here Callimachus, described perhaps misleadingly as a ‘guru’ (p. 6), is introduced; late-antique literature rates the best part of a page (p. 12); some nice remarks about the vagaries of classical texts' survival round off the chapter. Following this introductory survey, chapters are arranged by genre, as with other introductory works of larger scope and higher price, such as R. Rutherford, Classical Literature: a Concise History (2005). Brief summaries, deft dispatches of knotty and lengthy texts and judiciously chosen translated extracts – one enjoyable example was the rendering of Cicero's ‘O what a happy fate for the Roman state was the date of my consulate!’ (p. 95) – are all present and correct. The impressive clarity of these crystallisations was particularly noteworthy, for this reviewer, in the chapters on ‘Lyric and Personal Poetry’ (pp. 38–55), which spanned Archilochus to Horace with elegy, both Greek and Roman, in between, and ‘Drama’ (pp. 56–72), with similarly impressive range over both tragedy and comedy, with even mime and pantomime rating a mention (p. 67). It was pleasing to see mention, and quotation, of both Ennius and Lucilius, as well as a kind word for Polybius.
A far-reaching organisational decision in the chapter on ‘Epic’ is to group didactic poetry – Hesiod, Lucretius and Virgil's Georgics – at the end, on the premise that they share the hexameter with heroic works such as the Iliad and Aeneid. This striking choice reflects the downplaying in this book of philosophy (and, indeed, epistolography); both enter rather by stealth, passim, for instance in Plato and Aristotle's appearance in the discussion of tragedy (p. 59), or Seneca, Epistles 49.5 on Cicero's rebarbative abhorrence of the lyric poets (p. 47). One could also quibble with the prominence of Virgil which resulted from the decision to devote a chapter, admittedly short, to ‘Pastoral’ (pp. 99–107). No doubt reasons of space played a role in such selection. It could be said that, in view of the existence of Very Short Introductions to Ancient Philosophy, Aristotle, Plato and the Roman Republic, for instance, there was no need to tread on that ground. Likewise, the genre of Pastoral was surely included because of its influence, noted at pp. 106–7, on modern English poets such as Heaney (Wordsworth is mentioned at the beginning of the lyric chapter, p. 38). Still, I wonder whether, for instance, the negative description of genre as ‘not a timeless and unchanging Platonic form’ (p. 13) might confuse those unfamiliar with such a concept. Of course, with the existence of the resources on the internet, it is now easily possible for a confused reader with appetite whetted to explore much further on their own.
The book wears its learning very lightly. The section on didactic poetry already mentioned includes the comment, ‘Nobody likes to be lectured’ (p. 34), and the tone is brisk but somewhat colloquial, with frequent references to popular culture, starting with Monty Python on the very first page. Tacitus' Nero is ‘a mother-killing psycho’ (p. 87). Juvenal ‘sounds rather like a Daily Mail editorial’ (p. 114). The racier bits of ancient literature are well treated, including an enjoyable star turn for Lysias 1, though an audience of some maturity is expected, given the casual appearance of all sorts of unrestrained language from ‘motherfucker’ (p. 40) to ‘pissing on the altar of Chastity and then having lesbian sex in their own urine’ (p. 115, on Juvenal 6), to ‘Captain Blowjob’ (Lichas in Petronius, p. 122). On that last-mentioned page, some might be unprepared for the reproduction of the Pompeian brothel scene – with its slightly odd justification, ‘Petronius’ narrator frequents such establishments as often as he can' – overleaf from a comparison of the Satyricon with its ‘search of la dolce vita’ and parody of romance to Fielding's Joseph Andrews.
It should be added that the further reading section is admirable in its compression, not only in its frequent and punchy choice of one work of secondary literature per author or indeed genre (recommended are, for instance, Wiseman for Catullus, Veyne for Elegy, White for Horace, Hunter for New Comedy, Boyle for Seneca), but also in its distillation of this book's own topics into a handful of words: ‘Funny things happen on the way to the forum: J.R.W. Prag and I.D. Repath, eds., Petronius: A Handbook (Chichester, 2009)’. There are very few minor errors (‘diginified’, p. 14; ‘apears’, p. 111; ‘elegentiae arbiter’, p. 121).
I very much enjoyed this succinct and elegant book, and it is well worth its minimal outlay. Despite the occasional niggling worry about the relatively high level of education which the book assumes of its audience, I wholeheartedly recommend it in particular to classical civilisation and classical studies students as an entry point to thinking about and sampling ancient texts for themselves.
