Ovid: The Classical Heritage, first published in 1995, contains a diverse collection of reflections on a poet who has been adored and reviled in equal measure. Each essay indicates an theme or perspective which remains relevant to our self-understanding today. An enormous range of topics is investigated, in a variety of modes and styles: contemporary reaction, reception by Medieval Schoolmen, Ovid’s influence on Chaucer, and his importance for the ‘New Mythologists’.

Ovid, Rome’s most cynical and worldly love poet, has not until recently been highly regarded among Latin poets. Now, however, his reputation is growing, and this volume is an important contribution to the re-establishment of Ovid’s claims to critical attention. This collection of essays ranges over a wide variety of themes and works: Ovid’s development of the Elegiac tradition handed down to him from Propertius, Catullus and Tibullus; the often disparaged and neglected Heroides; the poetry of Ovid’s miserable exile by the Black Sea; the poetic diction of the Metamorphoses, Ovid’s lengthy mythological epic which codified classical myth and legend, and has strong claims to be considered, with the exception of Virgil’s Aeneid, Rome’s greatest epic poem; humour and the blending of the didactic and elegiac traditions in the Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris. Finally, Ovid’s incomparable influence in the Middle Ages and sixteenth century is examined.

Ovid, Rome’s most cynical and worldly love poet, has not until recently been highly regarded among Latin poets. Now, however, his reputation is growing, and this volume is an important contribution to the re-establishment of Ovid’s claims to critical attention. This collection of essays ranges over a wide variety of themes and works: Ovid’s development of the Elegiac tradition handed down to him from Propertius, Catullus and Tibullus; the often disparaged and neglected Heroides; the poetry of Ovid’s miserable exile by the Black Sea; the poetic diction of the Metamorphoses, Ovid’s lengthy mythological epic which codified classical myth and legend, and has strong claims to be considered, with the exception of Virgil’s Aeneid, Rome’s greatest epic poem; humour and the blending of the didactic and elegiac traditions in the Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris. Finally, Ovid’s incomparable influence in the Middle Ages and sixteenth century is examined.

Latin Explorations, first published in 1963, offers a fresh approach to Roman poetry from Catullus to Ovid. Traditionally, the period is divided for specialist studies - Lyric, Epic and Elegy. In each of them, techniques of interpretation prevail, isolated from contemporary ideas about poetry and dominated by barriers between 'textual', 'exegetical' and 'aesthetic' criticism. Kenneth Quinn discerns in Roman poetry of this period the adolescence, maturity and decay of a single coherent tradition whose internal unity surpasses differences of form. His argument attempts to reverse the dissociation of purely academic research from appreciative criticism, whilst also incorporating the work of textual scholars. Each chapter is supported by a detailed analysis of the texts: nearly 700 lines of poetry are discussed and translated. Latin Explorations will be of significant value not only to students of the Classics, but also to the 'Latinless' general reader who is interested in Roman literature.

First published in 1988, this study explains how certain genres created by Classical poets were adapted and sometimes transformed by the poets of the modern world, beginning with the Tudor poets’ rediscovery of the Classical heritage. Most of the long-lived poetic genres are discussed, from familiar examples like the hymn, elegy and eulogy, to less familiar topics such as the recusatio (refusal to write certain kinds of poems), or formal structures such as priamel. By combining criticism with literary history, the author explores the degree to which certain poets were consciously imitating models, and demonstrates how various generic forms reflect the literary concerns of individual poets as well as the general concerns of their age. The poets discussed range over the whole of Graeco-Roman antiquity, and in English from Wyatt to Yeats and Auden. A detailed and fascinating title, this study will appeal to teachers and students of both English and Classical literature.

Two thousand years after his death Horace is still recognised as a unique poet, having exerted marked influence on later European literature. This collection, first published in 1973, explores the different aspects of Horace’s poetic achievement in his main works: the Odes, Epistles ̧ Satires and Ars Poetica. The essays, written by internationally-known scholars, include a discussion of the three worlds of the Satires, and a study of Horace’s poetic craft in the Odes – his greatest technical accomplishment. The final chapter is devoted entirely to Horace’s reputation in England up to the seventeenth century as ‘The Best of Lyrick Poets’, and concentrates on the many English translations which he inspired. The expert criticism is illustrated throughout by English translations from the original Latin texts. Horace will appeal to students and scholars of Latin poetry alike, as well as to those interested in the reception of classical literature throughout European history.

First published in 1963, this book provides an account of Chaucer’s poetry written before The Canterbury Tales. W. H. Clemen gives full, comprehensive and intriguing accounts of three major poems including The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, and The Parliament of Fowls in addition to some other, more minor poems from Chaucer’s oeuvre.