The Golden Ass (Oxford World's Classics)
by Apuleius
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Book Summary Information
Author: ApuleiusTranslator: P. G. Walsh
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-07-22
ISBN: 0192838881
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of The Golden Ass (Oxford World's Classics)
Book Review: An under-rated classic.
Summary: 5 Stars
I was glad at least one reviewer recognised that the 'Golden Ass' culminates in the story of Lucius' initiation into the divine 'Mysteries.' At this point the entire feeling tone changes, shifting into another key - along with the language. W.Y. Evans-Wentz, famous for his Tibetan Buddhist studies, regarded the 'Golden Ass' in its entirety as an expression of the Western Mystery tradition.
Tales of magical metamorphoses are the very stuff of antiquity, and while Apuleius 'Golden Ass' more or less occupied a category of light-reading - akin to the modern novel (novella), it is worth bearing in mind that 'magic' was real enough for Apuleius' and his contemporaries. At one point in his life, Apuleius had to appear in court to defend himself against charges of using magic to profit his circumstances. Most translators touch on this. Thessaly was renowned for its witches and witchcraft - and Lucius' fascination with it, in the story, probably typified how many young people actually felt. The counter-point and climax in the story, Lucius' initiation into the Isiac religion, regaining human form, transformed in outlook, also reflected a shift in the contemporary outlook. It is hard for us to understand today, but Apuleius - a Platonist, probably subscribed to the Isiac religion. In fact, the beatific vision conveyed in the story of Lucius' conversion - borders on a theosophical vision of totality, Isis - as a formless-form.
Reviewers inevitably pick up on the bawdy element, bestiality etc., and while this may not be the sort of book you would want to read to children, the 'raunchy' side of it has been exaggerated. As Robert Graves remarked, when Lucian takes on assinine form, his rich Pasiphae "is no mere bestialist, but shows her genuine love for the ass by planting pure, sincere, wholly unmeretricious kisses on his scented nose " - which puts a rather different perspective on things. Still, there can be little doubt that - for Lucius, acquiring the form of an ass signifies a kind of fallen state. It has sometimes been said that the 'religious' element - Lucius' initiation into the Mysteries of Isis, was inserted as a kind of dupe, something to appease moralists and put them off track. But the juxtaposition of profane and sacred imagery in the story is one of a piece.
St. Augustine read the 'Golden Ass' and was influenced by it. There are obvious allusions to the Metamorphoses in Boccacio, and Shakespeare. There are no fixed rules about reading this book, but it is worth looking at Robert Graves' remarks about the symbolism. Seen in its earlier religious context, the Ass was also a religious symbol. Marie-Louise von Franz wrote a whole 'Jungian' commentary on this Roman fable. Other people have taken a less elevated view, seeing the metamorphoses of Lucius as nothing more than a ripping read, full of bizarre imagery and fantastic scenes. But Roman fables have connected meaning, which will not become apparent if we take them literally. Unravelling the symbolic attributes of this tale is a kind of long term project you might take on, if you enjoy the book. I recommend reading several translations, because Apuleius' Latin is as tricky as it is interesting. Besides Robert Graves' translation, there is Jack Lindsay's version, the old Loeb edition by Gaselee (basically a reworked version of Adlington's text (1566) - and, so I hear, a new Loeb edition (haven't checked that out yet).
Summary of The Golden Ass (Oxford World's Classics)
Apuleius's Golden Ass is a unique, entertaining, and thoroughly readable Latin novel--the only work of fiction in Latin to have survived from antiquity. It tells the story of the hero Lucius, whose curiosity and fascination for sex and magic results in his transformation into an ass. After suffering a series of trials and humiliations, he is ultimately returned to human shape by the kindness of the goddess Isis. Simultaneously a blend of romantic adventure, fable, and religious testament, The Golden Ass is one of the truly seminal works of European literature, of intrinsic interest as a novel in its own right, and one of the earliest examples of the picaresque. This new translation is at once faithful to the meaning of the Latin, while reproducing all the exuberance of the original.Classics Books
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