Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Literary Studies
Episode: Sarah Ruden, "Vergil: The Poet's Life" (Yale UP, 2023)
Description: There are some digressions in this interview, but none worth deleting. We also had to host over zoom, so while each audio track contains both participants, there are two tracks because I do not have premium.The Aeneid stands as a towering work of Classical Roman literature and a gripping dramatization of the best and worst of human nature. In the process of creating this epic poem, Vergil (70–19 BCE) became a living legend.But the real Vergil is a shadowy figure; we know that he was born into a modest rural family, that he led a pr...