History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Vol.

Dunlop, John Colin, 1785-1842Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5
Word count
1M words
Chapters
103

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Historical ReappraisalLiterary GiantsWestern ThoughtAcademic MonographAcademic StudyLiterary CriticismLiterature ReviewAncient RomeAugustan AgeCultural Change

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Vol.Author: Dunlop, John Colin, 1785-1842,Language: English, Class: PA: Language and Literatures: Classical Languages and Literature, Release Date: Apr 1, 2011

Editor's review

This nineteenth-century history of Roman literature by the British scholar Dunlop traces its development from the earliest period to the Augustan Age, a general survey of value as a source in classical studies. Its worth lies in surveying the growth of Latin literature through the eyes of an early modern classicist, examining literary phenomena within the political and social changes from Republic to Empire, in prose marked by the leisurely thoroughness characteristic of nineteenth-century scholarship. For today's readers it can serve both as an introductory guide to the overall framework of Roman literature and as a sample of the history of Western classical scholarship. Its period limitations should be borne in mind: some materials and judgments have been corrected by later research and should not be treated as sole authority. Best read slowly in quiet surroundings, alongside selections from the original works or other modern literary histories, to better appreciate its choices and emphases. As an English public-domain ebook, it is easily obtained and suited as a desk reference for enthusiasts of classical literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and period divisions first, and sketch the main line of literary development from the earliest period to the Augustan Age.
  2. After each chapter, note the writers and works the author discusses mainly, then compare differences with modern literary histories.
  3. When encountering quotations from Latin works, skim the details first and grasp the author's judgments and lines of argument.
  4. Read slowly at a pace of about one chapter a day, using notes to organize names, titles, and the timeline.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
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  34. 34
  35. 35
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  37. 37
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  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100
  101. 101
  102. 102
  103. 103

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers with no background in classics? It can be read as an introductory framework, but the author assumes readers have a basic knowledge of Roman history and Latin writers. It is advisable to grasp an outline of history from the Republic to the Augustan Age first, then use the table of contents to trace the threads; when encountering unfamiliar writers, note their names first and look them up after finishing a chapter rather than studying every sentence in depth.
Are the views in the book still reliable today? As a nineteenth-century work, its selection of materials and some judgments have been corrected by later classical scholarship and should not be treated as sole authority. Its main value lies in providing an overall framework and an early research perspective; readers should maintain a comparative awareness, checking specific conclusions against modern literary histories and selections from the writers' original works.
What should I pay attention to when reading the English public-domain ebook? Public-domain ebooks may have plain formatting and contain many proper names and Latin titles; it is advisable to use reading software with a dictionary look-up and to prepare a chronology of Roman literary figures as an aid. When encountering long quotations, grasp the author's evaluation and argument first rather than pondering every word; maintaining an overall reading rhythm matters more.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Dunlop, John Colin, 1785-1842 Author · Scottish · 1785–1842

John Colin Dunlop (1785–1842) was a Scottish literary historian. He is best known for his History of Fiction, a work that traces the origins and early development of the novel and is regarded as an important early contribution to the modern study of the genre. The library also holds two of his works, including Volume I of his History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age, which shows that his interests extended from fiction to ancient Roman literature and that he wrote with attention to the historical evolution of literary genres. Public information about his life is limited, and little reliable record survives of his education, career, or public activities. His surviving works are chiefly narrative surveys of source material, written in a plain style typical of nineteenth-century literary history, and they remain useful early texts for later students of fiction and Roman literature.