Eve Ottenberg
[Le Guin] focuses this engaging novel on Aeneas's Latin wife, who is only sketchily depicted in the epic poem. In simple, stately prose that does no violence to Vergil's work, Le Guin presents the rough, unpretentious dignity of the ancient pagans. She also portrays daily life in the Bronze Age, some time after the 13th century B.C., when duty and responsibility glue the community together…there is plenty of action in Lavinia. Even her happy marriage is filled with musings cleverly ancient yet modern—most compellingly on the expectations of women. By telling this story from its heroine's clear, forthright perspective, Le Guin has taken the cipher that is Vergil's Lavinia and given her a new life.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
In the Aeneid, the only notable lines Virgil devotes to Aeneas' second wife, Lavinia, concern an omen: the day before Aeneus lands in Latinum, Lavinia's hair is veiled by a ghost fire, presaging war. Le Guin's masterful novel gives a voice to Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus and Queen Amata, who rule Latinum in the era before the founding of Rome. Amata lost her sons to a childhood sickness and has since become slightly mad. She is fixated on marrying Lavinia to Amata's nephew, Turnus, the king of neighboring Rutuli. It's a good match, and Turnus is handsome, but Lavinia is reluctant. Following the words of an oracle, King Latinus announces that Lavinia will marry Aeneas, a newly landed stranger from Troy; the news provokes Amata, the farmers of Latinum, and Turnus, who starts a civil war. Le Guin is famous for creating alternative worlds (as in Left Hand of Darkness), and she approaches Lavinia's world, from which Western civilization took its course, as unique and strange as any fantasy. It's a novel that deserves to be ranked with Robert Graves's I, Claudius. (Apr.)
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School Library Journal
Adult/High School- This novel takes a minor character from Vergil's Aeneid and creates a thoughtful, moving tale of prophecy, myth, and self-fulfillment. Lavinia is the teen princess of Latium, a small but important kingdom in pre-Roman Italy. As she moves into womanhood, she feels pressure from her parents to choose one of her many suitors as both her husband and the future ruler of the kingdom. But the oracles of the sacred springs say she will marry an unknown foreigner. This stranger is none other than Vergil's Aeneus, proud hero, king without a country, and the man who will lay down the foundations of the Roman Empire. Their marriage sparks a war to control the region; while readers don't see the glorious battles, they do get the surprisingly moving perspective of the home front through Lavinia's eyes. Best known for her works of fantasy, Le Guin takes a more historical approach here by toning down the magical elements; gods and prophecies have a vital role in the protagonist's life, but they are presented as concepts and rituals, not as deities playing petty games with the lives of mortals. This shifts the focus of Vergil's plot from action to character, allowing Le Guin to breathe life into a character who never utters a word in the original story. Lavinia is quite compelling as she transforms from a spirited princess into a queen full of wisdom who makes a profound impact on her people. The author's language and style are complex, making this a title for sophisticated teens.-Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA
Kirkus Reviews
Le Guin (Powers, 2007, etc.) departs from her award-winning fantasy and science-fiction novels to amplify a story told only glancingly in Virgil's epic The Aeneid. The story is that of the eponymous princess of Latium (a royal city before Rome existed), promised by her parents, King Latinus and Queen Amata, to neighboring Rutilian king Turnus (who is Amata's nephew). But omens decree otherwise, and Lavinia weds Trojan warrior-adventurer Aeneas, a bereaved and conflicted husband, son and father who will, over the years, earn the initially reluctant Lavinia's undying respect and love. Though this unlikely heroine receives only token mention in Virgil's original, Le Guin brings her to vibrant life as a dutiful virgin whose world is circumscribed by daily routines; who is the uncooperative cynosure of several suitors' eyes; and who eventually distances herself from the misrule of her stepson Ascanius (Aeneas's successor), biding her time until the new metropolis of Rome is made worthy of its intrepid founder. Lavinia's inner strength emerges in dreamlike "conversations" with the poet who created her, and in her intuitive understanding of her father's just rule, her husband's justifiable ambitions and her own unending obligations. Le Guin has researched this ancient world assiduously, and her measured, understated prose captures with equal skill the permutations of established ritual and ceremony and the sensations of the battlefield ("The snarling trumpets rang out again. A group of horsemen far out in the fields moved forward in a solid mass like a shadow across the ripening crops . . . through the hot slanting light full of dust"). Arguably her best novel, and an altogether worthy companionvolume to one of the Western world's greatest stories.
From the Publisher
"[E]legant and eloquent." — Entertainment Weekly
"[A] work of immeasurable merit, Lavinia ranks with Robert Graves' inestimable I, Claudius as a perfect tale of a vastly imperfect time. Brilliant." — Baltimore Sun
"[Enhances] our understanding of The Aeneid, even as she tweaks Virgil for neglecting the female and domestic in favor of the male and martial." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Lavinia's conversations with Virgil, which are a love song to both the poet and the power of the imagination, are as good as anything Le Guin has done." — Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Lavinia is an old writer's book — Le Guin is 79 — in the best sense of the word; it is ripe with that half-remembered virtue, wisdom." — Laura Miller, Salon
"The inspired novelist has turned back toward the past—or, to be precise, poetry and myth about the past, because Lavinia is a literary rather than a historical figure—and written one of the finest novels she has ever made." — Chicago Tribune
"Lavinia . . .makes clear that Le Guin can still write in her classic style." — Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times
"[A] transporting novel told in the voice of a girl Virgil left in the margins. It is an absorbing, reverent, magnificent story, one I will be pressing upon my friends all year... a sinewy book riven with awe." — Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Brilliant." — The Sacramento Bee
"[D]elightful. . . .The magic here is that we get to watch Aeneas's story unfold from Lavinia's point of view." — NPR's "All Things Considered"
With her new novel, Lavinia, fantasy and science fiction virtuoso Ursula K. Le Guin vividly fills some of the blanks in Vergil's Aeneid. She focuses this engaging novel on Aeneas's Latin wife, who is only sketchily depicted in the epic poem…. By telling this story from its heroine's clear, forthright perspective, Le Guin has taken the cipher that is Vergil's Lavinia and given her a new life." — Washington Post Book World
"[LAVINIA] is a poem in the form of a novel, an elegant echo chamber for a canonical work, a reading of an epic poem, and a rewriting of that poem... In a real way, the writer is also royalty, one who speaks to the powers of the earth and sky." — Los Angeles Times
"[B]rilliant... Lavinia is not so much a feminist interpretation as a balanced interpretation of Vergil's poem... Read Vergil, read Le Guin and find both writers at the height of their powers." — The Oregonian
"The compulsively readable Le Guin earns kudos for fashioning a winning combination of history and mythology featuring an unlikely heroine imaginatively plucked from literary obscurity." — Booklist
"She was a minor character in The Aeneid, a 'silent, shrinking maiden,' but in Le Guin's brilliant reimagining of the last six books of Virgil's epic poem, Lavinia, the Latin king's daughter with whom the Trojan hero Aeneas founds the Roman Empire, finds her voice and springs fully to life... [T]his beautiful and moving novel is a love offering to one of the world's great poets, and former high-school Latin scholars may return to Virgil with a renewed appreciation. Highly recommended." — Library Journal (starred)
"Arguably her best novel, and an altogether worthy companion volume to one of the Western world's greatest stories." — Kirkus (starred)
"Le Guin is famous for creating alternative worlds (as in Left Hand of Darkness), and she approaches Lavinia's world, from which Western civilization took its course, as unique and strange as any fantasy. It's a novel that deserves to be ranked with Robert Graves's I, Claudius." — Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Ursula Le Guin, who's been tirelessly writing about war and conflict for the last 40 years in a way that no one has before or since, just published the big and lovely Lavinia, in which she picks up the history of the Latins where Virgil couldn't be bothered to tread." — New York Observer
Chicago Tribune
"The inspired novelist has turned back toward the past—or, to be precise, poetry and myth about the past, because Lavinia is a literary rather than a historical figure—and written one of the finest novels she has ever made."
The Sacramento Bee
"Brilliant."
Entertainment Weekly
"[E]legant and eloquent."
Baltimore Sun
"[A] work of immeasurable merit, Lavinia ranks with Robert Graves' inestimable I, Claudius as a perfect tale of a vastly imperfect time. Brilliant."
Cleveland Plain Dealer
"[A] transporting novel told in the voice of a girl Virgil left in the margins. It is an absorbing, reverent, magnificent story, one I will be pressing upon my friends all year... a sinewy book riven with awe."
NPR's "All Things Considered"
"[D]elightful. . . .The magic here is that we get to watch Aeneas's story unfold from Lavinia's point of view."
Philadelphia Inquirer
"[Enhances] our understanding of The Aeneid, even as she tweaks Virgil for neglecting the female and domestic in favor of the male and martial."
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Lavinia's conversations with Virgil, which are a love song to both the poet and the power of the imagination, are as good as anything Le Guin has done."
Scott Timberg
"Lavinia . . .makes clear that Le Guin can still write in her classic style."
Laura Miller
Lavinia is an old writer's book — Le Guin is 79 — in the best sense of the word; it is ripe with that half-remembered virtue, wisdom."
DECEMBER 2008 - AudioFile
Drawing upon a mere few lines from the AENEID, Le Guin crafts an intricate tale around the character of Lavinia, second wife of Aeneas. Exploring her life on Latinum before Aeneas's arrival, Le Guin’s story shifts focus and significance from the epic hero to Lavinia, illustrating how the politics of her kingdom led her into Aeneas's world. While Le Guin's writing does a good job of creating a believable character, Alyssa Bresnahan's performance gives her life. Bresnahan makes listeners believe they’re listening to a queen who BELONGS in an epic. Bresnahan captures the young Lavinia, utilizing the narrative context to give the character tones that range from reserved and regal to endearing and buoyant. L.E. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
