Propertius: A Critical Introduction

When this book was first published in 1976, the works of Propertius were becoming increasingly fashionable. Professor Sullivan proposes what was, at the time of publication, a new view on Propertius' poetic development and his place in the social political and literary circles of the day. His was an important re-evaluation. It finally banished the picture of Propertius, put forward before his celebration in the work of Ezra Pound and Robert Lowell, as a simple romantic, apprehended dimly through poor texts and an obscure vocabulary. We are shown instead a more complex, but a more credible and interesting poet. All quotations are in both Latin and English, and the book is intended for the general literary reader as much as for the classical student.