false 2214574 7 <div><div>In <i>The Aeneid, </i>Vergil's hero fights to claim the king's daughter Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word in the poem. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near the seven hills. <br><br>Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner&#8212;that she will be the cause of a bitter war&#8212;and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to make her own destiny, and to tell us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and the love of her life.<br><br>A book of family, love, and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.</div></div> 2220362 21 4 2008 Lavinia total:747|5:123|4:296|3:235|2:77|1:16| 747 2674 1519 274 5 10 true false Sun May 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 08 07:24:59 -0700 2008 Sun May 18 09:04:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Tue Jul 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 12 08:38:14 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 12:43:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Tue Nov 18 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Sep 10 15:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Nov 18 19:18:02 -0800 2008
Lavinia never speaks a wor...more...]]> 5 7 false false Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 22 12:26:09 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 12:25:36 -0700 2008 “I am not the feminine voice you may have expected”

When my father told me that Ursula LeGuin had put out a new novel, I was, as I usually am, ecstatic. LeGuin is one of my all time favorite authors, and I can’t think of time when she’s written something that has somehow fai...more...]]> 4 5 false false Mon Jul 28 10:32:42 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 10:43:19 -0700 2008 Penelopiad. Both explore one of the Big Classics (The Aeneid in LeGuin's case, the Odyssey in Atwood's) from a female character's perspective. LeGuin and Atwood are both stellar writers, but I enjoyed Lavinia vastly more. LeGuin seems to have ...more...]]> 2 4 false false Wed Jun 11 06:37:46 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 11 06:42:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu May 01 05:37:41 -0700 2008 Thu May 01 05:38:18 -0700 2008 4 1 false false Thu Mar 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 21 07:20:30 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 17 07:53:30 -0700 2009 Aeneid by expanding into its own book the story of Vergil's minor character Lavinia, Italian daughter of King Latinus and Queen Amata. (As such, fits into a particular genre, along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, of books that amplify a minor character from a famous...more...]]> 4 1 false true Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 20:51:40 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 20:52:36 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 05 09:59:11 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 05 10:57:56 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Aug 01 09:39:00 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 01 09:49:02 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 12:52:28 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 12:59:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Sun May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 07:41:58 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 07:43:17 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun May 25 10:17:43 -0700 2008 Sun May 25 10:46:55 -0700 2008 Aeneid in unconventional form. One cannot read this without having read Virgil's poem, and one really ought to have read it recently. It is very talky, and some of LeGuin's choices deliberately subvert the story's narrative potential. Where it s...more...]]> 0 1 false false Thu Feb 05 09:56:39 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:56:39 -0800 2009 Nearing 80, Le Guin has written a stunning book that melds meticulous research (according to one critic, perhaps too much) with her trademark imagination and engaging, spot-on prose into a tale that Virgil himself might have appreciated. Lavinia benefits from the ideas and the world building of Le G...

more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Mar 01 14:16:19 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 14:24:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 10 10:58:07 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 10:58:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 24 18:48:53 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 19:00:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Mar 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 15:07:21 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 22:38:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 17:32:23 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 17:33:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2214574