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Lavinia
- Author
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrator
- Imogen Church
- Publisher
- Orion
- Publish Date
- 4 June 2020
- Run Time
- 11 hours 50 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
'Subtly moving, playful...a novel that brought me to tears more than once. Lavinia is a delightful heroine' GUARDIAN
'Like Spartan Helen, I caused a war. She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her. I caused mine because I wouldn't be given, wouldn't be taken, but chose my man and my fate. The man was famous, the fate obscure; not a bad balance.'
Lavinia is the daughter of the King of Latium, a victorious warrior who loves peace; she is her father's closest companion. Now of an age to wed, Lavinia's mother favours her own kinsman, King Turnus of Rutulia, handsome, heroic, everything a young girl should want. Instead, Lavinia dreams of mighty Aeneas, a man she has heard of only from a ghost of a poet, who comes to her in the gods' holy place and tells her of her future, and Aeneas' past...
If she refuses to wed Turnus, Lavinia knows she will start a war - but her fate was set the moment the poet appeared to her in a dream and told her of the adventurer who fled fallen Troy, holding his son's hand and carrying his father on his back...
Critics Review
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Subtly moving, playful...a novel that brought me to tears more than once. Lavinia is a delightful heroine
GUARDIAN
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The focus on the women's side of the house...serves to give them rightful prominence within the fabric of a society where men are second in command only to fate...Le Guin [makes] mythology tangible, exciting and a surprising joy to read
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
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A superbly researched, beautifully written, profound and moving novel
CATHOLIC HERALD
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Compulsively readable...a winning combination of history and mythology featuring an unlikely heroine imaginatively plucked from literary obscurity
BOOKLIST
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Elegant and eloquent
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
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Beautiful and moving...Highly recommended
LIBRARY JOURNAL
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An intriguing, luxuriously realised novel
FINANCIAL TIMES
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrator
- Imogen Church
- Duration
- 11 hours 50 minutes
- Release Date
- 4 June 2020
- ISBN
- 9781473230682
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Orion
- Genre
- Fantasy, Historical romance, Roman religion and mythology, Ancient Greek religion and mythology, Historical fiction, Fiction: literary and general non-genre, Fantasy romance / Romantic fantasy
Synopsis
An exceptional combination of history and mythology - 'an intriguing, luxuriously realised novel' FINANCIAL TIMES'Subtly moving, playful...a novel that brought me to tears more than once. Lavinia is a delightful heroine' GUARDIAN'Like Spartan Helen, I caused a war. She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her. I caused mine because I wouldn't be given, wouldn't be taken, but chose my man and my fate. The man was famous, the fate obscure; not a bad balance.'Lavinia is the daughter of the King of Latium, a victorious warrior who loves peace; she is her father's closest companion. Now of an age to wed, Lavinia's mother favours her own kinsman, King Turnus of Rutulia, handsome, heroic, everything a young girl should want. Instead, Lavinia dreams of mighty Aeneas, a man she has heard of only from a ghost of a poet, who comes to her in the gods' holy place and tells her of her future, and Aeneas' past...If she refuses to wed Turnus, Lavinia knows she will start a war - but her fate was set the moment the poet appeared to her in a dream and told her of the adventurer who fled fallen Troy, holding his son's hand and carrying his father on his back...
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