These are some of the questions that gave rise to John Kirby's Secret of the Muses Retold. This new study of works by live twentieth-century Italian writers investigates the abiding influence of the Greek and Roman classics, and their rich legacy in our own day. The result is not only a splendid introduction to contemporary Italian literature, but also a lucid and stimulating meditation on the insights that writers such as Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino have tapped from the wellspring of ancient tradition.

Kirby's book offers an impassioned plea for the recuperation of the humanities in general, and of classical studies in particular. No expertise in Greek. Latin, Italian, or literary theory is presumed, and both traditional and postmodern perspectives are accommodated.