Books May 2015
Ovid, translated by Julia Dyson Hejduk
The Offense of Love: Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris & Tristia 2.
University of Wisconsin Press, 268 pages, $19.95
reviewed by Sarah Ruden
Generally in the media, the “survival of the humanities” is supposed to be imperiled by business interests’ and the general public’s rejection of high culture in favor of quick cash to be earned by technological prowess. Defensive accounts by humanities teachers tend to stress the spiritual or social-adjustment or vocational value of sampling literature and the arts.
Typically, such a teacher tells of giving a troubled, disadvantaged youth therapeutic nurture, including discussion of Catcher in the Rye or something in a caring,...
