Horace and His Influence

Showerman, Grant, 1870-1935Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 203K words
Chapters: 21

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.Horace and His Influence by Grant ShowermanAuthor: Showerman, Grant, 1870-1935,Language: English, Class: PA: Language and Literatures: Classical Languages and Literature, Release Date: Oct 4, 2005

Editor's review

This is a scholarly essay introducing the Roman poet Horace and his influence on later ages, belonging to classical language and literature studies. The author, Grant Showerman, traces Horace's creative profile in clear outline and focuses on the reception and transmission of his works in European literature and culture. The book's strength lies in placing the poet within the history of influence, discussing both the texts and how later readers understood and appropriated Horace, making it suitable for readers who want to understand how classical literature continues to exert influence. The writing is scholarly but not abstruse, suitable as supplementary reading for classical literature courses and for self-study by enthusiasts with some grounding in Western literature. Readers need not scrutinize every sentence; grasping the overall framework first and then revisiting specific discussions will yield clearer gains.

Who it's for

A good fit for

University students studying classical literature and Western literary history
Enthusiasts interested in Roman poetry and its later influence
Teachers and researchers needing to understand the reception history of Horace

Not a good fit for

Readers with no background in Western classical literature who seek an easy introduction
Readers who only want to read original translations of Horace's poetry

Reading tips

Read the introduction and conclusion first to grasp the book's central questions and argumentative framework
When encountering passages on specific poems, read them alongside selected works of Horace for comparison
After each chapter, summarize the key points in your own words to check whether you have grasped the core arguments

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.

FAQ

Do I need to read Horace's original works before reading this book?

Not strictly required, but helpful. The book discusses specific works and lines; if you have read some of Horace's representative poems beforehand, understanding will be smoother. Even with no background, you can read this book through first and then go back to the originals.

Is this book a biography or literary criticism?

It is both, but the emphasis is on influence studies. It introduces Horace's creative work and stature, and focuses more on how later ages read, cited, and evaluated him, making it closer to a work of literary criticism in the nature of reception history.

Comments

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About the author

Showerman, Grant, 1870-1935 Author · American · 1870–1935

Grant Showerman (1870–1935) was an American classicist who taught for many years at the University of Wisconsin, where he devoted himself to the study of Roman literature and Roman society. His representative work, Horace and His Influence, examines the poetry of the Roman poet Horace together with its transmission and reception in later ages, combining classical scholarship with a literary-historical perspective; it remains a useful reference for understanding earlier phases of Horatian studies. Showerman's writing joins close textual analysis with the social background of Rome in a clear, plain style, and will appeal to readers interested in ancient Roman literature and the Western classical tradition. Public information about his life and academic career is limited; the library currently holds only one of his works, and this introduction is confined to the facts given above.