Boethius Review

Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy translated by Richard H Green (134 pages)
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Date Read: 5 April 2016

Synopsis:

Boethius composed De Consolation Philosophiae in the 6th century while awaiting death by torture, condemned on a charge of plotting against Gothic rule, which he protested as manifestly unjust. Though a Christian, Boethius details the true end of life as the soul's knowledge of God, & consoles himself with the tenets of Greek philosophy, not with Christian precepts. Written in a form called Meippean Satire that alternates between prose & verse, Boethius' work often consists of a story told by Ovid or Horace to illustrate the philosophy being expounded. The Consolation of Philosophy dominated the intellectual world of the Middle Ages. It inspired writers as diverse Thomas Aquinas, Jean de Meun & Dante. In England it was rendered into Old English by Alfred the Great, into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. Later Queen Elizabeth I made her own translation. The circumstances of composition, the heroic demeanor of the author, & the Meippean texture of part prose, part verse have been a fascination for students of philosophy, literature & religion ever since.

My Review:

This is more of a 3.5 than just a 3.

This was a very insightful book about how people of this time period worked through their thinking processes as well as how they dealt with the concepts of God.

While reading this in tandem with Dante's Inferno, I was able to understand Inferno a lot more than if I had read it on its own.

Boethius explains many difficult concepts relatively clearly. (These concepts were made even more clear by my professor of Italian 150 [The Divine Comedy] rooting the concepts in examples from today)

Many of the concepts are repeated often, so they are driven home, but this also means that they get a bit boring. I found myself wanting to skim more as the book went along because it was saying the same thing for what seemed the millionth time.

I enjoyed how each Prose section has a brief blurb about the main concepts it was going to talk about. This made it easier to prepare myself for the upcoming reading.

The characters, Boethius and Lady Philosophy, felt a little too preachy for me at times, but they were talking about religion, so I guess it worked.

Overall, it was very insightful and interesting to read.