The Golden Ass
The Golden Ass
paperback
Published:
10 September, 2013
Popular Books by Apuleius
View All Books by Apuleius
Description
“A rollicking ride well worth the fare, . . . marvelously, sidesplittingly ridiculous. . . . It’s a story, not a homily, and Sarah Ruden has re-bestowed it with artful aplomb.”—Tracy Lee Simmons, National Review
“A cause for celebration. . . . We owe Sarah Ruden a great debt of thanks for [this] English translation that is no less inventive, varied, and surprising than the original.”—G. W. Bowersock, New York Review of Books
With accuracy, wit, and intelligence, this remarkable new translation of The Golden Ass breathes new life into Apuleius’s classic work. Sarah Ruden, a lyric poet as well as a highly respected translator, skillfully duplicates the verbal high jinks of Apuleius’s ever-popular novel. It tells the story of Lucius, a curious and silly young man who is turned into a donkey when he meddles with witchcraft. Doomed to wander from region to region and be mistreated by a series of deplorable owners, Lucius at last is restored to human form with the help of the goddess Isis.
The Golden Ass, the first Latin novel to survive in its entirety, is related to the Second Sophistic, a movement of learned and inventive literature. In a translation that is both the most faithful and the most entertaining to date, Ruden reveals to modern readers the vivid, farcical ingenuity of Apuleius’s style.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780300198140 |
| ISBN10 | 0300198140 |
| Number Of Pages | 288 |
| Item Weight | 272 g |
| Publisher / Reseller | Yale University Press |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
“Sarah Ruden’s superb translation of Apuleius’s The Golden Ass illuminates this wonderful story with a brilliant modern wit.”—Philip Pullman, The Observer
“Brilliantly executed. . . . Sarah Ruden’s new translation of Apuleius’ neo-platonist romp about a guy who magically turns into a donkey . . . conveys how truly bizarre the style of the original is.”—Emily Wilson, Times Literary Supplement
“This new translation of Apuleius’s novel stands alone for its accuracy and cleverly farcical rendering.”—Bookseller’s Buyer’s Guide
“A wonderful translation—highly inappropriate and great fun. In Sarah Ruden’s hands, the verbal gymnastics are ridiculously enjoyable rather than merely ridiculous.”—Amy Eisner, Maryland Institute College of Art
Praise for Sarah Ruden:
“Robert Fagles, shortly before his death, set the bar very high for translating the Aeneid. Yet already the scholar-poet Sarah Ruden has soared over the bar. . . . The translation is alive in every part. . . . This is the first translation since Dryden’s that can be read as a great English poem in itself.”—Garry Wills, New York Review of Books on Sarah Ruden’s translation of the Aeneid
“Fast, clean, and clear, sometimes terribly clever, and often strikingly beautiful. . . . Many human achievements deserve our praise, and this excellent translation is certainly one of them.”—Richard Garner, New Criterion, on Sarah Ruden’s translation of the Aeneid
“By conveying the emotional force of the Latin, Ruden makes the Aeneid newly vivid, exciting, and relevant. This translation proves why, for centuries, Virgil’s remarkable epic has been required reading.”—Mary Lefkowitz, author of Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn from Myths on Sarah Ruden’s translation of the Aeneid
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Sarah Ruden is an award-winning classics scholar, a poet, and a widely published writer on religion and culture. She is the author of Vergil: The Poet’s Life. Her many translated works include Vergil’s Aeneid.