Some random links: coming soon to a bookstore near you

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Is too much Virgil a bad thing? I’d have to say no, even though the number of new translations of the work of Caesar Augustus’ favorite poet will steadily increase this year, despite the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a mad rush on Latin poetry at bookstores.

Oxford University Press has just released an exemplary translation of ‘The Aeneid’ by Frederick Ahl; now Yale has one set for May by translator Sarah Ruden--and don’t forget Robert Fagles’ version published last year and just released in paperback. Also forthcoming in the spring is a related book by Ursula Le Guin, the novel ‘Lavinia,’ about the woman who fueled hatred between Aeneas and Turnus (shades of Helen of Troy!). Where is poet David Ferry? For Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Ferry has already translated ‘Eclogues’ and ‘Georgics’--he seems to be building steadily toward the magnum opus. No word yet from his publisher.

What explains this fascination with the classical Roman poet? A favorite response of critics is that Virgil’s imagining of Rome’s imperial ambitions mirror our own today--in a decidedly more successful way. Another explanation is that there seems to be a continuing call for epics. Recently, Hollywood has given us Homer (‘Troy’) and ‘Beowulf.’ Can an animated version of ‘The Aeneid’ (think George Clooney as the voice of the conqueror!) be far behind?
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The name is Faulks, Sebastian Faulks: Death doesn’t mean the end of a series, as publishers see it. Though Robert Ludlum is gone, his characters continue in stories written by other writers; the late Mario Puzo’s ‘Godfather’ saga has been taken up by Mark Winegardner; and now James Bond is set for a new adventure in ‘Devil May Care’ (Doubleday) penned by Sebastian Faulks and coming in May. Faulks enjoyed immense success with the historical novels ‘Birdsong’ and ‘Charlotte Gray’; now he’s been asked by the Ian Fleming estate to write a Bond adventure set during the Cold War to honor the centenary of Fleming’s birth.
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Who the devil is Inger Wolfe? Coming this spring from Harcourt is ‘The Calling,’ a mystery set in the small Scottish town of Port Dundas featuring Hazel Micallef, a detective inspector trying to solve the murder of a terminally ill woman. As intriguing as this might be, so also is the biographical information about the author in the announcement: Inger Wolfe, we’re told, ‘is the pseudonym for a prominent North American literary novelist.’

Nick Owchar