Poetic Interplay: Catullus and Horace

"This is a book that has long been needed and I can't think of anyone better to have written it than Michael Putnam. For any scholar working on either Horace or Catullus, this book will be essential reading. Putnam's argument about the extent of their 'poetic interplay' is not only convincing, but also quite astonishing."--Ronnie Ancona, Hunter College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York

"Exceptionally fluent. There is no other book-length study on this subject. Putnam makes a convincing case for the central role Catullus plays in Horace's lyric poetry."--Ortwin Knorr, Willamette University

Choice

This study makes an important contribution to classical scholarship in its reassessment of Horace's engagement with Catullan lyric by reminding the reader of the extent of Horace's formal and thematic debts to Catullus and the range of strategies he employs for diffusing the visibility of the earlier poet's influence.

Michael C. J. Putnam is MacMillan Professor of Classics and Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University. He is the author of ten books, including "The Poetry of the Aeneid", and coeditor of "The Virgilian Tradition" (forthcoming).