The Golden Ass Of Lucius Apuleius
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Yellowed
From the ancient world's most dazzling literary imagination comes The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius, the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety — a riotous, shape-shifting odyssey through magic, desire, and divine transformation. The story follows Lucius, a young man whose insatiable curiosity about witchcraft leads him to be accidentally transformed into a donkey, after which he endures a picaresque series of misadventures — stolen, beaten, and traded across the Roman world — before ultimately finding salvation through the goddess Isis. Rendered into rich Elizabethan English by William Adlington in 1566, this edition presents that celebrated translation alongside an authoritative introduction by the distinguished scholar F. J. Harvey Darton, bringing both ancient wit and Renaissance vigour to the modern reader. Adorned with striking illustrations by Philip Hagreen and privately printed for the Navarre Society Limited, this is a volume of rare distinction — an artifact of literary culture as much as a reading text. Apuleius writes with a theatrical, carnivalesque energy that prefigures everything from Cervantes to Kafka, weaving bawdy comedy with genuine spiritual yearning in a narrative that refuses easy categorisation. The embedded tale of Cupid and Psyche alone has inspired centuries of art, poetry, and philosophy, making The Golden Ass not merely a historical curiosity but a living, restless masterpiece that continues to unsettle and enchant all who encounter it.
Author: Lucius Apuleius (Translated By William Adlington, Edited By F. J. Harvey Darton, Illustrated By Philip Hagreen)
Format: Hardback
Genre: Classic fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Yellowed
From the ancient world's most dazzling literary imagination comes The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius, the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety — a riotous, shape-shifting odyssey through magic, desire, and divine transformation. The story follows Lucius, a young man whose insatiable curiosity about witchcraft leads him to be accidentally transformed into a donkey, after which he endures a picaresque series of misadventures — stolen, beaten, and traded across the Roman world — before ultimately finding salvation through the goddess Isis. Rendered into rich Elizabethan English by William Adlington in 1566, this edition presents that celebrated translation alongside an authoritative introduction by the distinguished scholar F. J. Harvey Darton, bringing both ancient wit and Renaissance vigour to the modern reader. Adorned with striking illustrations by Philip Hagreen and privately printed for the Navarre Society Limited, this is a volume of rare distinction — an artifact of literary culture as much as a reading text. Apuleius writes with a theatrical, carnivalesque energy that prefigures everything from Cervantes to Kafka, weaving bawdy comedy with genuine spiritual yearning in a narrative that refuses easy categorisation. The embedded tale of Cupid and Psyche alone has inspired centuries of art, poetry, and philosophy, making The Golden Ass not merely a historical curiosity but a living, restless masterpiece that continues to unsettle and enchant all who encounter it.