"A postwar Italian novel which falls far short of Silone's Fontamara with which it is compared, and similarly is disappointing viewed against the distinction of such films as Shoe Shine, The Open City and Paisan. Mr. Pratolini has packed a tiny street in Florence with a parade of characters and the effect is claustrophobic rather than microcosmic ... The action is centered in the middle '20's, in the small, poverty-striken area of the Via del Corno, where men like Lando, a sniveling pimp, are alternating in and out of prison; where the Signora, a retired, diseased ex-prostitute, turned lesbian, battens on young girls; where Maciste, a blacksmith, is killed by Fascists because he is a Communist; where the Nesi, coal merchant, brutalizes any woman that appeals to him; where everybody goes to bed with everybody else; and where the neighbors lean out of windows and exchange unsavory gossip avidly. The couple of good characters are well hidden in the mire. In an effort to make his novel tight, the author has attempted to squeeze a galaxy of "universal" types into too small an area and the result belongs in the Department of Utter Confusion. It lacks light, air, space, and in his effort to be significant, Pratolini succeeds only in being trite."--Kirkus

Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia is the compelling story of artist Jack Goldstein and some of his classmates at CalArts, who in the early 1970s went to New York and led the transition from conceptualism to Pictures art, utilizing images from television and movies with which they had grown up. At the same time, they discovered an artworld increasingly consumed by the desire for fame, fortune and the perks of success. The book is anchored by Jack's narratives of the early days of CalArts and the last days of Chouinard; the New York art world of the 70s and 80s; the trials and tribulations of finding and maintaining success; his inter-personal relationships; and his disappearance from the art scene. Goldsteins's own recollections are complemented by the first person narratives of his friends, including John Baldessari, Troy Brauntuch, Rosetta Brooks, Jean Fisher, Robert Longo, Matt Mullican and James Welling. There are provocative portraits of many well known artworld personalities of the 80s, including Mary Boone, David Salle, and Helene Winer, all working in a time when "the competitive spirit was strong and often brutal, caring little about anything but oneself and making lots of money.": "a biting, controversial, contradictory, hilarious, and riveting read ...," Mariah Corrigan, caa.reviews:: "a first-rate contribution to the history of contemporary art," David Carrier, artUS

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

Virgil (70-19 B.C.) needs no formal introduction, as he has long been considered Ancient Rome's greatest poet and is globally renowned for The Aeneid, one of the most famous epic poems in history. Virgil's other greatest works are considered to be the Eclogues (or Bucolics), and the Georgics, although several minor poems collected in the Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him. Similar to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid was considered Rome's national epic and legend, and it was immediately popular within the empire. It is said Virgil recited parts of it to Caesar Augustus, and it's believed the epic poem was unfinished when Virgil died in 19 B.C. The works of Virgil also had a dramatic effect on other Latin poetry. The Eclogues, Georgics, and above all the Aeneid became standard texts in school curricula with which all educated Romans were familiar. In the millennium following Virgil, poets often cited his work. For example, Ovid parodies the opening lines of the Aeneid in Book 14 of the Metamorphoses, and Lucan's epic, the Bellum Civile, has been considered an anti-Virgilian epic, disposing with the divine mechanism, treating historical events, and diverging drastically from Virgilian epic practice. Even Gregory of Tours, who admired Virgil, quotes Rome's poet, and Virgil famously guides Dante through Hell in the Italian's great work.

Aeneas flees the ashes of Troy to found the city of Rome and change forever the course of the Western world--as literature as well. Virgil's Aeneid is as eternal as Rome itself, a sweeping epic of arms and heroism--the searching portrait of a man caught between love and duty, human feeling and the force of fate--that has influenced writers for over 2,000 years. Filled with drama, passion, and the universal pathos that only a masterpiece can express. The Aeneid is a book for all the time and all people.

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad. Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas's wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of Rome and a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous pietas, and fashioned this into a compelling founding myth or national epic that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy, explained the Punic wars, glorified traditional Roman virtues, and legitimized the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes, and gods of Rome and Troy.Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the present day. Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and arrive on the shores of Italy-in Roman mythology the founding act of Rome. Virgil's work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably Dante's Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as Dante's guide through hell and purgatory.