The three-volume edition of The Works of Virgil , begun by Conington in 1852, has long been unavailable except in rare second-hand sets. The whole work is now being reissued in six affordable paperbacks, with new introductions setting the commentary in context. Well into the twentieth century, Conington’s Virgil remained invaluable to school and undergraduate students and their teachers; it still has much to offer the modern reader. His commentary is remarkably close and uncompromising in its engagement with Virgil’s Latin, as well as its literary sensitivity.