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Additional Physical Format: | Print version Print version |
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Material Type: | Document, Internet resource |
Document Type: | Internet Resource, Computer File |
All Authors / Contributors: |
John Godwin |
ISBN: | 9781910572344 1910572349 |
OCLC Number: | 1322067520 |
Description: | Online resource (200 pages). |
Series Title: | Aris & Phillips Classical Texts. |
Responsibility: | Godwin, John. |
Abstract:
Juvenal's fourth book of Satires consists of three poems which are all concerned with contentment in various forms. The poet adopts a more resigned and philosophical tone, unlike the brash anger of the earlier books. These poems use enormous humour and wit to puncture the pretensions of the foolish and the wicked, urging an acceptance of our lives and a more positive stance towards life and death by mockery of the pompous and comic description of the rich and famous. In Satire 10 Juvenal examines the human desire to be rich, famous, attractive and powerful and dismisses all these goals as not worth striving for - we are in fact happier as we are. In Satires 11 and 12 he argues for the simple life which can deliver genuine happiness rather than risking the decadence of luxury and the perils of sea-travel and legacy-hunting. Self-knowledge and true friendship are the moral heart of these poems; but they are also complex literary constructs in which the figure of the speaker can be...
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