Review by Choice Review
Comparable to Paul Veyne's Seneca: The Life of a Stoic (2003) and more accessible than Miriam Griffin's Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (CH, Sep'76), Wilson's biography begins with an introduction discussing historical sources, Stoicism, and other essential preliminaries and closes with an epilogue tracing Seneca's influence on later literature, including The Hunger Games. Intervening chapters focus on Seneca's youth (relying on the Ad Helviam Matrem, the writings of his father, and informed speculation); his early career, exile, and recall; his time as Nero's tutor and adviser; and his years of quasi-retirement, culminating in forced suicide. Wilson (Univ. of Pennsylvania) moves adeptly between cultural background (e.g., the role of declamation in Roman education) and Seneca's life and outlook, the latter as revealed in analysis of Seneca's philosophical and dramatic writings. Though often perceptive, Wilson's interpretations of these texts tend toward the biographical (and may be unconvincing): treatment of the slaughter of children (in The Trojan Women) may reveal "the guilt he felt at having helped to cover up the murder of young Britannicus"; On Benefits exhibits Seneca's "complex, guilty, apologetic, and defensive response" to his role in the assassination of Agrippina; and the various locales in Moral Epistles suggest that "Seneca had to keep moving ... to stay below Nero's radar." Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Austin Mathew Busch, College at Brockport, SUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Wilson (classical studies, Univ. of Pennsylvania; The Death of Socrates) takes a refreshing, critical look at the paradox of Seneca, a first-century Roman patrician and influential Stoic philosopher. Survival hinging on imperial whim, Seneca advocated personal simplicity and self-discipline to attain a state of "untroubled-ness," averring that "the greatest empire is over oneself." Yet Seneca accrued fabulous wealth as chief advisor and speechwriter for the cruel emperor Nero, generating tensions between theory and practice that pervade Seneca's letters and tragic plays. Wilson seeks to make sense of the man by examining his works, which reveal Seneca's fraught, ultimately doomed efforts to "be engaged in the world without losing integrity." This dilemma will continue to resonate in modern societies that, like Imperial Rome's, are beset by anxiety, inequality, consumerism, and moral compromise. The author teases out the nuances of Stoicism and concludes with Seneca's cultural impact, recently evidenced in Hunger Games character Seneca Crane-another PR manager with a fatal sentimental streak. VERDICT Unique as a scholarly book-length treatment of Seneca, this biography should appeal to anyone intrigued by the paradox of struggling to achieve wealth and power-and peace of mind.-Michael Rodriguez, Hodges Univ. Lib., Naples, FL (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
