In this volume Philip Hardie provides an introduction to Virgil's three major works, a survey of changing critical approaches to the poems during the twentieth century, and a bibliographical guide for further study. A final section on style, language and metre offers a case-study in a close reading of a section of the Aeneid. The book communicates a sense of why reading Virgil matters and how the study of this author is always open to new ideas and fresh insights. No knowledge of Latin is presumed.