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Audiobook edition · 2 h 26 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a ploughed field teach us about living after war?
In The Georgics, Virgil turns farming into poetry about the work of living. Written after the civil wars, this long poem asks how people can live well on wounded land. Grain, vines, olive trees, livestock and bees give that question a concrete shape, rooted in the demands of each season.
The poem moves from ploughed fields to trees, then to animals and the world of bees. Practical advice sits beside weather, disease, love and grief. Virgil gives patient labour its dignity without hiding its hardships. You do not need a field of your own to feel the pull of this closely observed country life.
What you’ll discover
- Grain and patient labour Enter the first book’s ploughed fields, where hard work gives the poem its grounding image.
- Vines and olive trees Explore the second book’s trees, from seeds and cuttings to the craft of grafting.
- Animals, love and loss Meet the third book’s livestock, where country life holds both pride and the threat of disease.
- The small world of bees Discover how Virgil gives the smallest creatures the weight and grandeur of epic poetry.
- A land beyond war Follow the deeper question beneath the farming advice: how to live well after conflict.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love the countryside, the turning seasons, gardens and animals, and for anyone drawn to Roman history, ancient poetry, or the idea that careful daily work can hold a shaken world together.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Farming offers a path toward peace
- Learn your ground before you act
- Need makes people invent and work
- The world gives signs to watch
- Careful planting extends what nature offers
- Country peace rests on repeated care
- Good care cannot control all nature
- Small lives reveal a shared world
- Close attention links work and peace
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The Georgics in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Poetry & DramaFree shelf
The Georgics
by Virgil
A poet guides a farmer through the year by teaching him to read the stars, tend the soil and care for bees.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
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“But the greatest testimony to the persistence of Virgil’s fame and influence in the western world is the homage which the genius of Dante pays to the shade of his great countryman.”
In short
Picture a farmer in early spring. Meltwater drips from the gray mountains, the oxen strain at the plow, and a voice beside him says how deep to cut the furrow and which star to watch.
The Georgics at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 30 min1 h 10 min fast, 1 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 21,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- about 29 BCby Virgil
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Virgil teaches farming to heal a wounded Rome
The Georgics opens with a list of its themes. Virgil promises to say under which star to turn the soil, how to join the elm to the vine, how to tend cattle, and how to keep bees. Book one deals with grain and weather, book two with trees and vines, book three with cattle, horses and sheep, and book four with bees.
Virgil addresses the poem to Maecenas, a friend of the young ruler Caesar. He calls on the gods of the countryside, then asks Caesar what kind of god he will choose to be. It is an odd beginning for a farm manual. It tells you at once that the field and the state belong in the same poem.
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Cite this edition
Virgil. The Georgics. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-georgics.
Virgil. (2026). The georgics. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-georgics (Original work published ca. 29 B.C.E.)
Virgil. The Georgics. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-georgics.
@book{virgil2026georgics,
author = {Virgil},
title = {The Georgics},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-georgics},
note = {First published ca. 29 BCE}
}
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What is the Georgics about?
It is a poem in four books about working the land. It covers grain and weather, trees and vines, cattle and horses, and bees, and it ties each task to Roman hopes for peace after civil war.
Who is Maecenas in the Georgics?
Maecenas was Virgil's patron and a friend of the young ruler Caesar. Virgil addresses him at the start of each early book and credits his encouragement for the poem.
Is the Georgics a real farming manual?
It contains real advice on plowing, grafting, soil tests, breeding and beekeeping, drawn from older teaching and from observation. Virgil also uses it for storytelling, prayers and reflection, so it works as both guide and poem.
The author
Virgil
69 BC–18 BC · Roman epic poet
Roman poet.
“Oh, how happy the farmers would be,”
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