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Title Reading the Letters of Pliny the Younger : an introduction / Roy K. Gibson and Ruth Morello.
Author Gibson, Roy K.
Published Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Status Loan Type Location Shelf-mark
 In Library  Standard  Library Level 10  Classics NP360 7/GIB  
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Description xii, 350 p. : map ; 24 cm.
ISBN 9780521842921 (hbk.)
Note Includes bibliographical references (p. 316-318) and index.
Contents Reading a life: Letters, Book 1 -- Reading a book: Letters, Book 6 -- Epistolary models: Cicero and Seneca -- Pliny's elders and betters: the Elder Pliny, Vestricius Spurinna, Corellius Rufus, Verginius Rufus (and Silus Italicus) -- Pliny's peers: reading for the addressee -- Otium: how to manage leisure -- Reading the Villa Letters: 9.7, 2.17, 5.6 -- The grand design: how to read a collection -- Appendix 1. A Pliny timeline, and the great Comum inscription -- Appendix 2. Letters 1-9: catalogue of contents and addressees -- Appendix 3. Popular topics in the Letters: bibliographical help -- Appendix 4. Index of main characters in the Letters.
Summary "This is the first general introduction to Pliny's Letters published in any language, combining close readings with broader context and adopting a fresh and innovative approach to reading the letters as an artistically structured collection. Chapter 1 traces Pliny's autobiographical narrative throughout the Letters; Chapter 2 undertakes detailed study of Book 6 as an artistic entity; while Chapter 3 sets Pliny's letters within a Roman epistolographical tradition dominated by Cicero and Seneca. Chapters 4 to 7 study thematic letter cycles within the collection, including those on Pliny's famous country villas and his relationships with Pliny the Elder and Tacitus. The final chapter focuses on the 'grand design' which unifies and structures the collection. Four detailed appendices give invaluable historical and scholarly context, including a helpful timeline for Pliny's life and career, detailed bibliographical help on over 30 popular topics in Pliny's letters and a summary of the main characters mentioned in the Letters" --Provided by publisher.
Library Class Classics NP360
Subject Pliny, the Younger. Correspondence -- Criticism, Textual.
Pliny, the Younger -- Criticism and interpretation.
Letter writing, Latin -- History -- To 1500.
Other Author Morello, Ruth.

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