Trimalchio's Dinner |
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| Author:
| Arbiter, Petronius |
| Translator:
| Peck, Harry |
| ISBN: | 978-1-4935-6679-2 |
| Publication Date: | Oct 2013 |
| Publisher: | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $8.99 |
Book Description:
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TRIMALCHIO'S dinner party is one of the great masterpieces of comic literature. Wholly apart from the picture it gives - one of the very best that have come down to us from ancient times - of the typical life of the Roman bourgeoisie, apart from the archaeological value of the wealth of minute details in which it abounds, and apart also from its unusual linguistic interest in giving us connected specimens of the plebeian Latinity of daily life, it is from beginning to end a bit of...
More DescriptionTRIMALCHIO'S dinner party is one of the great masterpieces of comic literature. Wholly apart from the picture it gives - one of the very best that have come down to us from ancient times - of the typical life of the Roman bourgeoisie, apart from the archaeological value of the wealth of minute details in which it abounds, and apart also from its unusual linguistic interest in giving us connected specimens of the plebeian Latinity of daily life, it is from beginning to end a bit of character-drawing and sustained fun to be ranked with the creations of Fielding and Dickens in English, of Stinde in German, and of Daudet in French. Trimalchio himself is a grotesque composite of Tittlebat Titmouse and Tartarin; his point of view, and what painters might call his atmosphere, are those of the immortal Familie Buchholz.
The two companions, Encolpius and Ascyltus, are invited to a dinner given by this personage, and the narrative of their experiences there is given in full. Trimalchio is a freedman who, having secured his start in life by no very dainty practices, has amassed an enormous fortune and is now enjoying it. He is a bald, red-faced old fellow, fond of eating and fonder of display, inordinately conceited, forever bragging of his money, and anxious also to seem a man of literary attainments, though his ignorance of everything is unbounded. His companions at table are nearly all men of his own rank; and there is his wife Fortunata, a sharp, practical, shrewish little woman, to whose fidelity and care Trimalchio, who has some good points, frankly ascribes a large share of his success.