Propertius: Elegies Book IV

Propertius' fourth book is his most challenging and innovative.

It disrupts genre; dislocates time and order; and meditates on gender, perception and history.

A sort of postmodernism combines with narrative and structural verve, incisively physical writing and a gallery of colourful characters.

This edition makes a demanding and rewarding text more accessible and more intelligible.

The text is new; help and fresh ideas are offered on the text and meaning of words.

A wide range of literary, inscriptional and archaeological material is used to illuminate this many-sided poetry.

Much more space is given than in previous editions to literary interpretation and historical contextualization, in the light of modern work.

The book is approached as a dynamic sequence of poems rather than a collection.

The edition should be valuable to both students and scholars.