Reviewed by Stefan Vucak for Readers' Favorite

Book One introduces the reader to some of the greatest Western epics, such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dante’s The Divine Comedy and many others. Each epic is summarized in a short synopsis, which is followed by the author’s commentary. This sets the platform for Book Two, launching into a discussion of Western history, its social and emerging industrial fabric, and the rise of the English language as causal factors for the decline of the epics.

The Decline of the Epic provides the reader with an intellectual smorgasbord from which he can satiate himself or be violently sick. This work is not for the fainthearted. Without some familiarity of classical writing and understanding of history, politics and socioeconomics, the reader will be left floundering. There is much to agree with, and even more, that raises one’s hackles. Although the title suggests an analysis of why epic writing has declined over time, the work is fundamentally a critique and social commentary on Western society that bemoans the passing of what is perceived was a simpler and easier time.

The author’s knowledge and understanding of the classics is profound, but confined to Mediterranean and European cultures. It is unfortunate that he neglected to include great Indian epics like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, or the Rig Veda; the Mayan Popol Vuh, the great Chinese epic The Ballad of Meng Jiang Nu or the Muslim epics of One Thousand and One Nights and the Taghribat Bani Hilal in his analyses, to name only a few. Most of these works leave Medieval European writings bereft of substance.

Jason Goetz has undertaken an ambitious tour of some of the world’s great classics, using them as a platform to expound his views on morality, social values and perceived shortcomings of modern economic and political systems. The reader may not agree with everything the author proposes, but he will definitely find the material challenging and thought provoking.