Wilkinson provides a critical analysis of the many dimensions - literary, philosophic, political and agricultural - of the Georgics , arguing that its primary purpose was to delight readers through its vivid descriptiveness, rather than to instruct farmers. The poem is put in context with an examination of its intellectual ancestry, and an account of how it has been received up to modern times. All passages quoted are translated, and Niall Rudd has contributed a foreword and bought the bibliography up to date.