title: Lavinia
author:  Ursula K. Le Guin 
description: Starred Review. In the <i>Aeneid</i>, the only notable lines Virgil devotes to Aeneas' second wife, Lavinia, concern an omen: the day before Aeneus lands in Latinum, Lavinia's hair is veiled by a ghost fire, presaging war. Le Guin's masterful novel gives a voice to Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus and Queen Amata, who rule Latinum in the era before the founding of Rome. Amata lost her sons to a childhood sickness and has since become slightly mad. She is fixated on marrying Lavinia to Amata's nephew, Turnus, the king of neighboring Rutuli. It's a good match, and Turnus is handsome, but Lavinia is reluctant. Following the words of an oracle, King Latinus announces that Lavinia will marry Aeneas, a newly landed stranger from Troy; the news provokes Amata, the farmers of Latinum, and Turnus, who starts a civil war. Le Guin is famous for creating alternative worlds (as in <i>Left Hand of Darkness</i>), and she approaches Lavinia's world, from which Western civilization took its course, as unique and strange as any fantasy. It's a novel that deserves to be ranked with Robert Graves's <i>I, Claudius</i>. <i>(Apr.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  Not every lady plays by the rules…
  
  Lady Lavinia Vaile knows what happens to a woman who puts her faith in
  society. For her, it was a disastrous marriage to a depraved man—one she
  threatened to shoot when she left him. Now Lavinia lives outside of society’s
  strict conventions, hosting private gambling parties. It’s only when her
  husband is shot dead that Lavinia finds herself in terrible danger...
  
  A former judge in India’s high court, Maximilian Harrison will do anything he
  can to help Lavinia. In the darkest of times, he held on to thoughts of her
  and the love they once shared. Now he risks his own position in society—along
  with his ambitions—in order to clear her name. Yet as desire reignites between
  them, Lavinia remains caught up in secrets and shame. Her only salvation is to
  do the unthinkable...and trust in both Maximilian and love.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  LADY VICE
  
  A FURIES NOVEL
  
  WENDY LACAPRA
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, c