The last decade has seen an impressive number of volumes dedicated to exploring the many facets of Latin love elegy, and to resolving some of its enigmatic qualities. This recent Cambridge companion to the genre is one more helpful guide to the issues surrounding Latin love elegy, including its origins, its generic affiliations, its representations of love and gender, and its nachleben and influence throughout European literary history.

The volume is divided into five sections: on history and context – dealing primarily with literary predecessors; on the elegists themselves – Gallus, Sulpicia, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid; on the world of elegy – dealing primarily with elegy’s generic tropes; on the ends of Latin love elegy – with emphasis on the ways that the elegists transgress not only Rome’s societal expectations, but even their own poetic premises; on reception – with essays that address the major periods of love elegy’s resurgence (Late Antiquity, the medieval period, the Renaissance, and the sixteenth seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly in England, France, Russia, and Germany); and on the elegiac meter.

There are twenty-four essays within this volume, including the introduction. As is evident, the editor has assembled an impressive team of scholars, and whether or not she assigned the specific topics for each to address (there is much evidence of intelligent design here), the essays speak from in-depth inquiry and research, and many essays build upon others within the collection. There exist frequent references to other essays within the book, and the editor, the contributors, and the series editors can take credit for the book’s discursive as well as informative qualities. The collection also features the useful closing paragraph in each essay where materials for further reading receive recommendation. The quality of the editorial work is likewise commendable.