An Introduction to Ventius Fortunatus for Schoolchildren

Part parody, part mockery, and entirely witty, this book of translated poetry by a forgotten medieval saint offers all that one might expect from beginning to end: telling contrasts between vastly different sensibilities, values, beliefs, customs, and modes of expressing and interacting with the world. Indirectly and unsurprisingly, the book critiques the crass materialism of contemporary middle-class life. After all, what could show more profoundly a weddedness to things than prayerful rumination on the immaterial spirit? Most importantly, the collection's greatest virtue is that these hilarious and marvelously irreverent writings achieve all of this using multiple creative methods to deliberately mistranslate from Latin a lesser-known Italian poet from 600 A.D.