The Golden Ass (Penguin Classics)
by Apuleius
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Book Summary Information
Author: ApuleiusTranslator: E. J. Kenney
Introduction: E. J. Kenney
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-01-01
ISBN: 0140435905
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of The Golden Ass (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: A Complex and Entralling Work
Summary: 4 Stars
Lucius Apuleius was one of the main representatives of North African Platonism during the second century (AD). He wrote works ranging from philosophy and medicine to poetry and rhetoric. Apuleius is best known for his remarkable collection of tales, The Golden Ass or Transformations. It is a playful satire containing the use of many different genres, much like one would find in the Mennepian satires of Petronius, Seneca, Fulgentius, or Macrobius. It is a complex and enthralling work in which interpretation is always open-ended. Apuleius' use of allegory, his exceptional talent for imagery, and his rhythmic and often poetic prose, make this text a challenge and a joy to read at the same time. The Golden Ass is definitely a masterpiece of Latin literature and can also argue of being the world's first novel.
Summary of The Golden Ass (Penguin Classics)
Lucius, a young man whose fascination with witchcraft leads him to believe he can be transformed into a bird, instead becomes a donkey. Whirled off by robbers, he embarks on a series of adventures and misadventures. Confronted eventually with the prospect of a stage performance where he is supposed to demonstrate his sexual prowess with a woman, he is overwhelmed by a religious vision and is finally initiated into the cult of the goddess Isis.
It has been long disputed whether Apuleius meant this last-minute conversion seriously or as a final comic surprise and the challenge of interpretation continues to keep readers fascinated by this work. Apuleius? Golden Ass is the most continuously and accessibly amusing book that has come down to us from classical antiquity.
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