Victorian Horace

Reviews / Votes

Harrison is perfectly placed to excavate the Horatian artifacts buried in Victorian literature. ... [T]he author demonstrates an impressive command of Victorian poetry and fiction, as well as the scholarship on Victorian classical reception. Without doubt, Victorian Horace is a valuable addition to this literature: consistently illuminating on the intricacies of period translations, on the relationship between an original poem and a modem imitation, and on decoding subtle allusions in poetry and prose. * Victorian Studies * [Harrison] is an erudite and agreeable cicerone who presents the reader with a wide range of responses to Horace over a significant period in the history of classical education. * Classics for All * A thorough and thought-provoking study, concise, well-argued, and full of avenues for further inquiry. Harrison has made another valuable contribution to the field of Horatian studies. * New England Classical Journal * Quoting passages in the original Latin and in translation, this thorough book examines the role of Horace before and after the Victorian period, setting the 19th-century appeal of the ancient poet in a wider cultural context as part of a dialogue down the centuries from 1st-century Rome till now. * Minerva * The greatest strength of Harrison's book ... [is] the carefully collated and sensibly arranged analyses of the interplay between Horatian verse and its Victorian manifestations. He devotes a chapter to an engaging exegesis of Horatian elements in the works of several Victorian poets, including Tennyson, Arnold, Clough, and Fitzgerald. * Classical World * This is a discussion of the reception of Horace at its very best, astutely combining analysis of Latin poetry with exploration of the literary and social contexts of translation, criticism and the new writing inspired by Horace. Harrison's readings illuminate both the ancient poetry and its modern counterparts, offering in-depth insights into the dynamism and malleability of the cultural capital embedded in Victorian responses to Horace. The book provides a fitting adieu to the Classical Inter/Faces series. * Lorna Hardwick, Professor Emerita of Classical Studies, The Open University, UK * Admirable and exhaustive assemblage of the impact of Horace on poets, novelists, scholars, and readers of the Victorian Age. * Richard F. Thomas, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics, Harvard University, USA *