Horace and the Rhetoric of Authority.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998. XII,241p. Hard bound with dust wrps. Dust wrps to upper edge back cover slightly wrinkled. Nice copy. 'Like other recent critics Oliensis uses the sociolinguistic theory of P. Brown and S.C. Levinson, 'Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage' (Cambridge, 1987), to describe how Horace constructs his 'face', a term adding social stake to persona (...). Unlike the others, O. pursues her topic across all Horace's works. This salutary move allows for comparison of the degrees to which Horace represents himself as socially powerful at different stages of his career and in different genres. O. disentangles H.'s conflicting desires for independence and approval, a clarifaction of social strategies that sometimes appear at cross purposes. her overall story is one of increasing Horatian authority. (...) O.'s strengths are the individual aperçu (check marks litter my copy) and the summing up of each collection. (...) O.'s rhetorical representation leads to a narrow view of Horace on poetic grounds, however fine her readings.' (MICHÈLE LOWRIE in The Classical Review (New Series), 2000, p.49-50). From the library of Professor Carl Deroux.