Books by Sarah Ruden
Sarah Ruden is a Quaker author and translator, whose most recent books are her revised and expanded English Aeneid and a new English version of the Gospels. Her journalism concentrates on literature, religion, and human rights, and she is also an award-winning poet. She has won Guggenheim, Whiting, and Silvers awards for her books.
“One interesting book for fans of the great epic poem of the Augustus years, the Aeneid, is a literary biography of its author, Vergil. Vergil: The Poet’s Life is by American scholar and translator Sarah Ruden. Other than his poem, we don’t know much about the author, so Ruden has to do a lot of heavy lifting, but why not? Ruden recently translated the Aeneid, and you can also read her Five Books interview about Vergil.” Read more...
Notable Nonfiction of Fall 2023
Sophie Roell, Journalist
Interviews with Sarah Ruden
The best books on Virgil, recommended by Sarah Ruden
Virgil is one of the most influential poets in the history of Western literature. Here, another poet, Sarah Ruden, talks about the challenges of translating the Aeneid and why, although we know little about Virgil as a man, his great poem’s take on the violence and power struggles it depicts is deeply ambivalent.
Interviews where books by Sarah Ruden were recommended
-
1
The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives
by Plutarch -
2
Pericles of Athens
by Vincent Azoulay -
3
Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher
by Armand D'Angour -
4
Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens
by David Stuttard -
5
Agricola
by Harold Mattingly, James Rives & Tacitus -
6
The Twelve Caesars
by Suetonius and Robert Graves (translator)
Biographies of Ancient Greeks and Romans
Biographies of Ancient Greeks and Romans
The art of biography has been a work in progress down the millennia. These days, leaders are no longer celebrated for the number of enemies killed in war, nor are we as impressed with territorial conquests. Here’s a roundup of all the biographies recommended on Five Books about ancient Greeks and Romans, from contemporary accounts to more recent works.
-
1
Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age
by Tom Holland -
2
Vergil: The Poet's Life
by Sarah Ruden -
3
Ian Fleming: The Complete Man
by Nicholas Shakespeare -
4
The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics & its Unsung Trailblazers
by Kate Kitagawa & Timothy Revell -
5
The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism
by Sebastian Edwards
Notable Nonfiction of Fall 2023, recommended by Sophie Roell
Notable Nonfiction of Fall 2023, recommended by Sophie Roell
As summer collapses into fall across the northern hemisphere, Five Books editor Sophie Roell takes a look at the nonfiction books that have been published over the last three months. Reading serious nonfiction books remains the easiest way to get up to speed on not only things you’re already interested in, but lots of things you didn’t know you didn’t know.
