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The Golden Ass: The Transformations of Lucius
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Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Author: Apuleius
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $11.20
You Save: $ 2.80 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Author: Apuleius
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Average Customer Rating:
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The Golden Ass: The Transformations of Lucius Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780374505325
ISBN: 0374505322
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 294
Publication Date: 1998-08-31
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780374505325
ISBN: 0374505322
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 294
Publication Date: 1998-08-31
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Editorial Review of The Golden Ass: The Transformations of Lucius
In all of literature, there are few books with the vitality of The Golden Ass. The story follows Lucius, a young man of good birth, as he disports himself in the cities and along the roads of Thessaly. This is a wonderful tale abounding in lusty incident, curious adventure and bawdy wit.
Customer Reviews of The Golden Ass: The Transformations of Lucius
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: My favorite classic
Review: This is easily my favorite Classic work of literature. Unlike many of the other classics, such as the Odyssey, Iliad, Aeneid, and others, this book kept my attention the entire time and I couldn't wait to finish. Robert Graves does a tremendous job of translating it into an easily readable version.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: great valentine's gift
Review: book includes the original story of Cupid (Pysche). perfect gift for lovers possessing a sash of intelligence.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An enjoyable and enduring classic
Review: Apuleius' The Golden Ass, or Metamorphoses, is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. Composed in the second century, this picaresque work tells the tale of Lucius, a man whose curiosity in magic and indulgence of sexual pleasures leads him to accidently transform himself into an ass. What follows are the various trials and hardships he endures as well as the tales he hears throughout his travels. It is not until the intervention of the goddess Isis that Lucius is transformed back into a man, and he devotes the rest of his life to her cult.
Apuleius' storytelling is lively, witty, an often sexually explicit. Indeed, many forms of fetish are showcased within the pages, including beastiality. More often than not, the novel indulges readers in their guilty curiosities while also providing hilarious and adventurous prose, with a splash of red-streaked violence thrown in for good measure. However, despite being written nearly two-thousand years ago, what may shock the modern reader most is how approachable and familiar is not only the humor but also the sentiments and sensuality of these Roman characters. It is not difficult to imagine Lucius' world.
The Golden Ass offers readers a romp through ancient Rome through the eyes of a contemporary while also entertaining. It is also a highly revealing documentation of religion and magical belief in Greco-Roman polytheism, and contains the only complete description of the initiation into a Mystery cult. The true essence of the novel is that it is a fable culminating in the religious transformation of the individual and the embrace of salvation (soteria). However, the pagan salvation was not one of the afterlife, but of this life, and involved changing one's perspective of the world and also of life and death. The ass in the ancient world was seen as the most base of animals, an utter slave to its desires, and Lucius' transformation at the end should be read as symbolizing his overcoming of those passions.
The Golden Ass is bawdy and shocking, but also intelligent and satisfying. Graves' translation is fluid and easy to follow. The prose is as enjoyable (and perhaps rewarding) to read today as it no doubt was nearly two-millennia ago.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A wild and entertaining romp of a novel
Review: This is certainly an entertaining reading experience and Robert Grave's translation makes this 1800 year old novel come to life for modern audiences. The book is full of stories within stories, a device that I found very entertaining and reminded me of the best works of A.S. Byatt. The story within a story approach allowed for multiple wild digressions of the most fantastic types. Stories of magic, murder, rape, incest, poison, bribery, theives, beastiality, orgies, homosexuality, and all other manner of hair-raising encounters populate the multiple stories within stories.
Yet there is certainly a strong central theme and storyline in the plight of poor Lucius, the attorney turned into a donkey. The world and humanity are seen anew through the eyes of an ass.
The book does take one major departure with the longer story of Cupid and Psyche, skillfully told. The book ends with another change of pace when Lucius devotes himself to the gods, especially the goddess Isis/Diana/Artemis, the White Goddess.
I think the book was excellent and would never have survived so many centuries if each age did not find the human condition to be much unchanged despite the wild and wooly tales encountered here.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Humor. Sex. Adventure. Magic.
Review: Everyone should read The Golden Ass, especially this translation. Just reading it can deepen a person. It's one of those books to be treasured and re-read every few years, finding new insights and humor. The Cupid and Psyche portion is rousing and sly and stands alone. I've given copies as gifts over the years and notice my friends still hang on to them long after.
Review Summary: My favorite classic
Review: This is easily my favorite Classic work of literature. Unlike many of the other classics, such as the Odyssey, Iliad, Aeneid, and others, this book kept my attention the entire time and I couldn't wait to finish. Robert Graves does a tremendous job of translating it into an easily readable version.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: great valentine's gift
Review: book includes the original story of Cupid (Pysche). perfect gift for lovers possessing a sash of intelligence.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An enjoyable and enduring classic
Review: Apuleius' The Golden Ass, or Metamorphoses, is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. Composed in the second century, this picaresque work tells the tale of Lucius, a man whose curiosity in magic and indulgence of sexual pleasures leads him to accidently transform himself into an ass. What follows are the various trials and hardships he endures as well as the tales he hears throughout his travels. It is not until the intervention of the goddess Isis that Lucius is transformed back into a man, and he devotes the rest of his life to her cult.
Apuleius' storytelling is lively, witty, an often sexually explicit. Indeed, many forms of fetish are showcased within the pages, including beastiality. More often than not, the novel indulges readers in their guilty curiosities while also providing hilarious and adventurous prose, with a splash of red-streaked violence thrown in for good measure. However, despite being written nearly two-thousand years ago, what may shock the modern reader most is how approachable and familiar is not only the humor but also the sentiments and sensuality of these Roman characters. It is not difficult to imagine Lucius' world.
The Golden Ass offers readers a romp through ancient Rome through the eyes of a contemporary while also entertaining. It is also a highly revealing documentation of religion and magical belief in Greco-Roman polytheism, and contains the only complete description of the initiation into a Mystery cult. The true essence of the novel is that it is a fable culminating in the religious transformation of the individual and the embrace of salvation (soteria). However, the pagan salvation was not one of the afterlife, but of this life, and involved changing one's perspective of the world and also of life and death. The ass in the ancient world was seen as the most base of animals, an utter slave to its desires, and Lucius' transformation at the end should be read as symbolizing his overcoming of those passions.
The Golden Ass is bawdy and shocking, but also intelligent and satisfying. Graves' translation is fluid and easy to follow. The prose is as enjoyable (and perhaps rewarding) to read today as it no doubt was nearly two-millennia ago.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A wild and entertaining romp of a novel
Review: This is certainly an entertaining reading experience and Robert Grave's translation makes this 1800 year old novel come to life for modern audiences. The book is full of stories within stories, a device that I found very entertaining and reminded me of the best works of A.S. Byatt. The story within a story approach allowed for multiple wild digressions of the most fantastic types. Stories of magic, murder, rape, incest, poison, bribery, theives, beastiality, orgies, homosexuality, and all other manner of hair-raising encounters populate the multiple stories within stories.
Yet there is certainly a strong central theme and storyline in the plight of poor Lucius, the attorney turned into a donkey. The world and humanity are seen anew through the eyes of an ass.
The book does take one major departure with the longer story of Cupid and Psyche, skillfully told. The book ends with another change of pace when Lucius devotes himself to the gods, especially the goddess Isis/Diana/Artemis, the White Goddess.
I think the book was excellent and would never have survived so many centuries if each age did not find the human condition to be much unchanged despite the wild and wooly tales encountered here.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Humor. Sex. Adventure. Magic.
Review: Everyone should read The Golden Ass, especially this translation. Just reading it can deepen a person. It's one of those books to be treasured and re-read every few years, finding new insights and humor. The Cupid and Psyche portion is rousing and sly and stands alone. I've given copies as gifts over the years and notice my friends still hang on to them long after.