Lavinia
Ursula K. Le Guin's Lavinia is a quiet, lyrical late period novel that hands the microphone to one of the great silent women of Western literature. In Virgil's Aeneid, Lavinia is the Italian princess Aeneas marries in the second half of the poem, the cause of a war and the founding mother of the Roman people, and she does not speak a single line. Le Guin imagines Lavinia as a thoughtful young woman of the early Italian kingdom of Latium, the daughter of King Latinus, whose mother wants her to marry the Rutulian warrior Turnus and whose own quiet inclinations pull her toward the foreign refugee Aeneas. In a series of mystical encounters at the spring of Albunea, Lavinia speaks across time with the dying Virgil himself, who half apologizes for not giving her a voice and half explains that he did not have time. Le Guin writes in the calm, considered voice of her late work, treating fate, war, and matrimony as the ordinary weather of a woman's life.
Themes & atmosphere
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What you might want to know about Lavinia
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In Virgil's Aeneid, Lavinia is the Italian princess Aeneas marries at the end. Le Guin gives her a voice, a girlhood at her father's court, and a long married life with the Trojan stranger who landed on her shore.
Lavinia is a Roman epic retelling, not Greek. It reimagines the second half of Virgil's Aeneid from Lavinia's perspective. Le Guin published the novel in 2008 toward the end of her career.
Yes. Lavinia won the 2009 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. It is widely cited as one of Ursula K. Le Guin's late-career masterpieces alongside her Earthsea cycle.
Lavinia was written by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 2008 by Opus.
Lavinia is 305 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Lavinia takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Lavinia is a standalone novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, not part of a series.
Lavinia is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.