The Aeneid

Unique features of this edition:

• Translated (into prose) by C.S. Lewis’ fellow Oxford Professor J. W. Mackail
• Over 70 full page illustrations by Francis Cleyn
• Part of a set of books (the 5 that most influenced C.S. Lewis) being produced by The Room to Roam
• Contains appendices with excerpts by George MacDonald and G. K. Chesterton on specific themes and translations of The Aeneid

Virgil’s Aeneid stands as one of the great epics of ancient literature, and is, in addition, one of the two long poems* to which C. S. Lewis most often returned. Equally admired by George MacDonald and G. K. Chesterton, the story (translated into English prose by J. W. Mackail) tells of one man’s struggle against fortune and the gods when the Greeks destroy his Trojan homeland by fire and sword. Virgil’s hero, if he is to fulfil his destiny and save his people, must overcome loss, propitiate the anger of heaven, and lead with undaunted courage as he looks to a distant shore and the founding of an empire on which the sun will never set.

*the other being Wordsworth’s The Prelude