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Long Live Latin: The Pleasures of a Useless Language

Autor Professor Nicola Gardini
en Limba Engleză Paperback – sep 2021
Latin has given us so much, from Virgil's Aeneid to Ovid's Metamorphoses, from some of the world's most enduring stories to the words we use everyday. And yet we call it dead. Oxford academic Nicola Gardini argues the case for its vitality and value, offering a personal and passionate defence of its beauty and future. From ancient writers we can learn about such vital aspects of life as love, purpose, eloquence, beauty and loss. These lessons from the past can illuminate our present, and Gardini encourages us to dig to the roots of our own language to consider how Latin has influenced the ways in which we communicate, think and live today. A timely reminder that not everything needs to be 'leveraged', 'optimised' or 'efficient' - some things enrich our lives by simply being part of them.A formidable mix of history, memoir and criticism, this is a beautiful love letter to one language that ultimately celebrates the vital power of all literature.
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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781781259405
ISBN-10: 1781259402
Pagini: 256
Dimensiuni: 129 x 198 mm
Ediția:Main
Editura: Profile
Colecția Profile Books
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom

Notă biografică

Nicola Gardini fell in love with Latin as a child, through reading and listening to his mother sing Latin hymns. Following a lifetime of study, he now teaches Italian Literature at the University of Oxford and continues to pass on his love for the country's other 'dead' language. He also writes poetry and fiction, has published several collections of verse and three novels, of which The Lost Words of Amelia Lynd was awarded the Viareggio prize in 2012.

Recenzii

This love-letter to Latin enthrals, illuminates, and convinces. Nobody could possibly describe Latin as a dead or useless language after reading it.
Highlighting the particular charms in the styles and attitudes of Latin's greatest writers, this book will open many eyes to the unexpected pleasures of Latin
A brilliant reminder that the supposedly dead language is alive and kicking - and still the most influential language in the world.
A highly enjoyable, erudite book . . . Gardini knows his Latin inside out [and] is alive to the immense power of Latin to move the reader.
In this spirited linguistic jaunt, novelist Gardini (Lost Words) makes a strong argument for studying a supposedly "dead language" to unlock its beauty, history, and continued liveliness . . . Anyone who embarks on such a voyage will find this a helpful and contagiously enthusiastic companion.
A loving tribute to Latin as well as a compelling response to those who would call the language 'useless' . . . [Gardini's] enthusiasm is infectious. Whether new to the study or remembering Latin lessons from years ago, interested readers will appreciate his insights, both translational and social.
Fascinating . . . [Gardini's] precise, writerly descriptions of the texts are often exciting and infectious in themselves . . . For Gardini, the promise of Latin is that getting to the root of words, understanding what they meant before they got into Italian or English or any other Romance language, is getting at what underlies and defines our vexing Western culture
In Long Live Latin, Nicola Gardini argues that it is worth studying not for its utility but simply because "Latin is beautiful" . . . . The book emerges as an adoring "biography" of Latin as the greatest written language; maintaining throughout that the point of reading Latin authors is not to haul them into the present, under a banner of "relevance", but rather to venture ourselves into the linguistic world of the ancients that helped create so much of Western literature from the philosophy of More, Spinoza and Descartes to the poetry of Petrarch, Dante and Milton.
Gardini . . . crafts each chapter so that it feels like an encounter. Offering numerous personal anecdotes from his own life, Gardini's writing is warm and conversational yet scholarly.
Nicola Gardini's paean to Latin belongs on the shelf alongside Nabokov's Lectures on Literature. With a similar blend of erudition, reverence, and impeccable close reading, he connects the dots between etymology and poetry, between syntax and society. And he proves, in the process, that a mysterious and magnificent language, born in ancient Rome, is still relevant to each and every one of us.
Nicola Gardini's Long Live Latin is not only a learned crash course in the splendors of Latin literature, but also an inspiring demonstration on why Latin still matters. Passionate, wise, and, finally, ennobling, this is a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject.