Patricia Johnston has been Professor of Classics at Brandeis University since 1975, where she teaches Latin, Greek, and Classical Literature. She received her doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley, and has also been visiting professor at University of Southern California and San Francisco State. She is past president of the Vergilian Society.
This is an admirable commentary, with Latin text, vocabulary, and appendix on Vergil's meter, offering students of Vergil at the intermediate level or higher succinct grammatical, stylistic, and contextual help towards a rich understanding of the poet's profound portrayal of Aeneas' descent into the lower world. It is prefaced by an enticing introduction to the role played by this book in the narrative of the epic as a whole, and sections of the commentary have bibliographical references for further reading. - Raymond J. Clark, University of Ottawa, Canada