I wanted so much to love this book on principle, but it was mediocre at best. I liked the idea of this book so much, but not the execution of it. I don't know if it's down to a lackluster or below par translation taking away from the original, or if the originals simply lacked the quality that their concepts deserved, or if it was a poor selection of works that were chosen...

No matter which way you look at it, this collection only just scraped together enough intrigue, and peak enough of my curiosity, to earn it a 3rd star. It's not a book I can imagine I would ever recomend. ( )

I wanted so much to love this book on principle, but it was mediocre at best. I liked the idea of this book so much, but not the execution of it. I don't know if it's down to a lackluster or below par translation taking away from the original, or if the originals simply lacked the quality that their concepts deserved, or if it was a poor selection of works that were chosen...

No matter which way you look at it, this collection only just scraped together enough intrigue, and peak enough of my curiosity, to earn it a 3rd star. It's not a book I can imagine I would ever recomend. ( )

This is one of those that I feel you would only really get if you had an education in the "classics" and italian history and mythology and a decent knowledge of the bible to boot. I gave it up as a bad job. This is the first of the ancient Romans to leave me feeling cold and idiotic. Most of the other ancient stuff felt far more modern but this read more like 18th century romantic poetry - a genre I never have enjoyed. ( )

Full review to come! ( )