Get Started On Catullus Bedspread: The Life Of Romes Most Erotic Poet Penned By Daisy Dunn Compiled As Printable Format

think the author misjudged her audience, This book is not a "vivid narrative" it claims to be, It is very well researched, interesting, somewhat controversial, but definitely not vivid, Paragraphs feel disjointed from one another, The narrative behaves more like a solid than a liquid, and a living solid at that: it jumps like a cricket from one paragraph to the next, instead of flowing seamlessly as I would expect it.
The whole biography resembles a workbook, with a lot of extensive notes, And there is also a decisive lack of original Latin poems, I know, the interested reader is supposed to go out there and find them, But it would be really nice to at least have a few examples, even if only to see firsthand the rhythm the author talks about.
Make it three and a half, because some of her translations are quite imaginative and immediate, She even imitates Catullus' "frenetic rhythm" in poem, the only one in Latin in this "galliambic" rhythm, meant to remind the reader of the cymbals and drums of wild worshipers of the Great Mother Cybele.
But the whole project is a little suspect from the start: almost nothing is known about the poet's life, and what is guessed is drawn as she does here from supposedly autobiographical details in his poetry.
There's a lot of dispute about that, which she honestly acknowledges in her footnotes, There arepoems, and they are clearly not in chronological order, They do not tell a stepbystep story,of them mention "Lesbia" as the love and hate of his life, Other love poems are written to an unnamed womanis that still Lesbia, or somebody else How can anyone possibly decide There are some famous names in his poetry, but are they identical with the people of the same name whom history remembers There are a lot of mythical allusionsdo they reference thencurrent political events Dunn comes down pretty firmly on all these questions.
But it seems to me she has conjured up a Catullus who is, like the promises of women in love as he says, written in the wind and on running water.
Not quite biography, not quote literary criticism or straight translation, this hybrid of a book mixes the genres to make a classical cocktail that really hits the spot.
This was a fun biography of Catullus using, mostly, his own poems, which is of course Fraught for a general audience.
I'm impressed by the dogged attempt to put everything into a chronology, which is great for a history, but doesn't work for a poetry book and so it makes a lot of sense that this is NOT a poetry book.
Dunn has apparently also done a translation except for excerpts,is the only poem completely translated in this book, which is definitely something I'd like to get my hands on.


For those who haven't read Catullus, and simplifying a bit, we have a vaguelymetricallyarranged book of Catullus' poems that was likely not Catullus' original arrangement of the book or books, and would probably not have been chronological in the first place.
You pretty much have to read the whole thing to absorb the interconnectedness of it all, Because Catullus mentions a lot of contemporaries, it's very tempting to mine his book for biographical details and make connections to historical events, but that only goes so far before you start having to make educated guesses.
My one complaint with Catullus' Bedspread is that Dunn often doesn't make it clear what's a guess or the thought process behind that guess.
Not doing this makes it a lot more readable, of course, so it's hard to argue too much, but there were points where I would have liked

a footnote this book used endnotes, which is a perfectly sensible choice that I always absolutely hate.
I dont know why I decided to read yet another book about Catullus during term time when I dont need to know about him for my degree anymore, but I did and I enjoyed it.
The book combines analysis of Catullus poetry with wider context of his life and what was going on in Rome at the time spoiler: lots was going on in the late Republic!.
I dont study much Roman history but this period is really interesting and Im glad I now know more about it in general.


The book did slow down a bit towards the end, and I got bogged down in all the different Roman senators, consuls and generals etc.
who were being introduced, but I would recommend it to anyone wanting to flesh out their knowledge of Roman poetry and this moment in time as a whole.


If you want to read about Catullus and all the luxury amp decadence good and bad of lateRepublic Rome but dont want the poetry analysis etc.
, Counting the Stars by Helen Dunmore is a really good, semifictionalised story about Catullus affair with Lesbia, Not quite historical fiction but the type where the author says things like, "Catullus walked up the Palatine, sweating profusely in the Roman summer" things that are plausibly true but ultimately unprovable.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, Dunn brought together a wealth of resources to provide an invaluable overall CONTEXT not only for the life of Catullus but also for his poems.
Now I finally know who each person is was, what was going on in Roman politics and social life, etc.
, to explain each poem. It makes me want to set this as required reading for my high school students when we get to the unit on Catullus.
Unlike any other biography I've read of anyone quite fascinating how the author cleverly reconstructed Catullus's life mainly from his own poetry and other primary sources.
Though scatological and even obscene at times, he was a poet of great feeling, introspection, and intensity, Some of his incisive poems on particular personalities presage Martial or Juvenal, The author used as point of referencewhat she considers his masterpiece, the miniature epic she termed the "Bedspread poem", of extended mythological scenes and Catullus's Five Ages of Mankind which led her to relate his other poems to his life: from growing up in Verona, to Rome, to Bithynia on the Black Sea, thence back to Rome and his home on Lake Garda.
The "Lesbia" poems trace his love affair with Clodia Metelli, from fevered beginning through love/hate to its end, where he tells two fellow poets and us:
"And may she not expect my love as before,/Which through her fault has fallen like a flower/On the edge of a meadow, touched/By a plough passing by.
" From Poem.

We enter into Catullus's world, also the political conditions, machinations, and upheaval of the Late Republic, Ms. Dunn has also provided interesting analyses of some of the poems what she thinks are subtle meanings between the lines.
She does fill in gaps in setting the scenes with her own words: for instance, when Catullus first climbs the Palatine to the Metellus home, his voyage home from Bithynia and last, where we see him on the shore of Lake Garda.
He watches the water "lick the land like tears, "

sitelink nationalgallery. org. uk/pai
Based on the myth of Ariadne and Bacchus from the "Bedspread poem", the Titian painting commissioned by the Italian Renaissance duke Alfonso III, d'Este, of Ferrara.


Highly recommended. Subtitled, “The Life of Romes Most Erotic Poet,” this is the biography of Gaius Valerius Catullus, believed to be born in Verona aboutB.
C. One of the problems with trying to write the biography of someone who lived so long ago is obviously the lack of material to work with.
However, in this case, we are lucky, For Catullus was Romes first lyric poet and his poetry, unlike most of his contemporaries, dealt less with epic adventures, and more with the personal.


Catullus lived in turbulent times and his world was populated with great men Julius Caesar a dinner guest of his father, Pompey the Great, Crassus, Cicero and others.
Therefore, his poems also give us a personal portrait of a critical point in world politics, as well as a personal and immediate view of his life and his loves.
For Catullus was more bedroom than battlefield and his immediate concerns mostly involved his own personal life, As a poet he inspired Ovid and Virgil among others and, because his poetry deals with his own feelings, disappointments and emotions, they still seem extremely relevant and, almost shockingly modern.


Author, Daisy Dunn, interweaves poetry into this book using Catullus own words to tell his story, So here is his story, of a poet from the upper echelons of society, A second son whose elder brother died and who was forced to return to Verona from Rome, A man who fell passionately in love with another mans wife, Above all a man who used his experience to write great poetry, I think he would be pleased that this book existed and that his poetry is still read and remembered.
A fascinating read and an amazingly vivid portrait of a man who lived so long ago, in such amazing times.

Considering so little is known about this scurrilously wickedly good poet she has created an imaginative, accessible portrait of him.
Wonderful. The author reconstructs Catullus' life from his poems and contemporaneous historical accounts, Besides his poetry, Catullus is most famous for his affair with Clodia, the sister of the demagogue Publius Clodius Pulcher and the wife of former consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer.
Many of his poems are quite scatological, and others are outright attacks on people, including Caesar, It's a very interesting look at Rome during the last years of the Republic, I loved this book. It inspired so much thought in so many ways and areas and I can honestly say I had never thought this much about one person until this book! I loved this wonderfully vivid account of Catullus' life and work a lepidus blend of literary analysis, biography, and cultural history, with plenty of original insight and sal to spare.
Catullus' poems have been a personal favorite ever since I studied them in school many years ago, and Dunn captures his surly, sensitive spirit better than any English commentator I can recall.
Adored this delightful bio of bad boy poet Catullus, It's a model of concision, and the translations are great, If one thing is made absolutely clear by classicist Daisy Dunn within her text, it is that she is an absolute fan of Catullus, a poet writing at the time of the crumbling Roman Republic.
It shows less so in her explanations and more in the stunning way which she has rendered his poetry.
Latin is a language that requires profound understanding in order to interpret the beauty of its poetic canon, and it is clear that Dunn's command of the language as well as talent for emotional writing has gifted the Englishspeaking world with an incredible piece of work.
If this book has done anything, it has made me want to read all of Catullus's work as rendered by Dunn in her separately published collection.


Her passion for Catullus is a major advantage for the reader of this text, Although she is a fan, she is more passionate about and loyal to the work itself, In short, she is in no way here to preach about the good or bad things that he may or may not have done.
Her theories are theories, and she does not attempt to justify his behavior which at times would be more closely associated with our modern fuckboys than a tortured artist.
Catullus, a rich young man who did much to hide and/or ignore his ties to Gallic/Roman nobility, was a biting and at times bitter romantic an author consumed by the nature of how people love and how they ultimately lie.
As a result, his works are grotesque in their beauty,

Where Catullus's Bedspread misses the mark is in the unfortunate lack of proper information we have.
All we know of Catullus comes from secondary sources and, for the most part, his own poetry, As a result, we have to infer a lot about what his intentions accurately were, Dunn does a good job arguing her theories, but, at the end of the day, that's what they are.
Theories. At times, it feels more like fact than perhaps it should, This is combined with Dunn's attempt to match Catullus poetic language by writing her own prose so delicately, The ending result may be approachable and beautiful, but it also lends itself to slight reader confusion when compared to other more straightforward history books.
I'm glad I had more context thanks to other works to help me truly understand the situation happening in Rome at the time this in spite of Dunn's ample digressions from Catullus necessary given how little is factually known about the man.


Overall, the book was enjoyable, but the marketing lets it down, Catullus's Bedspread is not strictly a biography rather, it is a strongly argued literary analysis with some biographical fact and a lot more biographical theory.
What this books does well, aside from Dunn's impeccable rendering of the Latin into English, is offer us context as it relates to Catullus himself.
This text tells the story of the fall of the Roman Republic from a very different perspective not through the eyes of a politician there are plenty but through an artist mostly preoccupied with his feelings and the way Roman human behavior was, as its Republic was, decaying.


And, for anybody who loves the delicious drama concerning the Clodii Pulchri, this book will provide you with a lot of context.
It was an easy read, but it takes a LOT of liberties, .Stars Really good, almost great, book

Daisy Dunn details, as best as she can, the life of Roman poet Catullus.


Ancient Rome fascinates me and I appreciate this book is about an aspect that, historically, is overlooked poets and their poetry.
Usually, at least in my experience, theres a lot of work on military, politics, and important players in those fields.
Of course thats not to say that those traditional elements dont play a part in Catullus story because they do.
However, this book is parsed with Catullus poetry and the author does a good job of balancing fact, poetry, and analysis.


Do I recommend this one Yes, Overall its a different view of Ancient Rome and I liked it, .