Poets in a Landscape Paperback - 2010

Media reviews

“A guidebook to present-day Italian scenes and an introduction to seven of the great Latin poets, whom we meet on their own grounds…the places and people we meet on this very special trip make this extremely attractive for all who love the beauties of nature and at the same time like to remind themselves of the great works of men and the glories of past civilizations.” –Paul Jordan Smith, Los Angeles Times

“A walk back in time to a Roman Italy of 2,000 and the lives of seven Latin poets.” –Jacob Deschin, The New York Times

“...this book has established itself as a minor classic, or quite simply as a classic…The writing is sensitive and notably intelligent, backed up by Highet’s competent verse renderings from the Latin, and to cap it all he gives a pen-picture of Rome itself at its imperial apex. Here is scholarship in the old sense, humane, unpedantic, open-minded and totally free of academic jargon.” –Brian Fallon, The Irish Times

A “delightful, infectious book…Highet writes racily about the Latin poets he admires, putting each in situ with the airy dash now frowned upon in today’s dourer academy. He knows much. And enthuses even more. This is a labor of love that is never labored. Highet’s attention to prosodic details gets us within earshot of his authors.” –The Herald (Glasgow)

“Highet has written what is surely one of the most unusual travel books ever published. It is in one sense an account of a journey to Italy, complete with pictures taken by the author’s ‘faithful Rolleiflex.’ In another sense it is the journal of a trip into the Italy of the past…translated by the author with loving care and capturing as faithfully as possible the meter and structure of the oritinal work.” –Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

“This attractive and pleasantly educational work...includes some lucid and enlightening critical interpretation…In tracing the birthplaces and homes of his seven poets Mr. Highet has written sketches of many places in Italy outside the orbit of most tourists…Poets in a Landscape is a strikingly handsome example of bookmaking.” –Orville Prescott, The New York Times

“With great love and scholarship…he brings his poets and their troubles fully alive.” –Stevie Smith

“Highet is that rarest of finds, the scholarly homme complet, full-blodded, cultured, completely human in his learning.” –The Times Literary Supplement (London)

“Unlike many scholars he succeeds in getting into the skin of his poets, finding the man in the style…there he can detect a writer’s true self.” –Cyril Connolly

Citations

• Reference and Research Bk News, 05/01/2010, Page 247