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P. G. Walsh
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Apuleius
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The Golden Ass (Oxford World's Classics) Paperback – 25 Mar. 1999

by Apuleius (Author), P. G. Walsh (Translator)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 81 ratings
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The Golden Ass is a unique, entertaining, and thoroughly readable Latin novel - the only work of fiction in Latin to have survived in its entirety. It tells the story of Lucius, whose curiosity and fascination for sex and magic result in his transformation into an ass. After suffering a series of trials and humiliations, he is ultimately transformed back into human shape by the kindness of the Goddess Isis. Blending romantic adventure, fable, and religious testament, The Golden Ass is one of the truly seminal books 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, whilst reproducing all the exuberant gaiety of the original.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Oxford Paperbacks
  4. Publication date
    25 Mar. 1999
  5. Dimensions
    13.34 x 1.91 x 19.69 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0192838881
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0192838889
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford Paperbacks; New edition (25 Mar. 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0192838881
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0192838889
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.34 x 1.91 x 19.69 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 81 ratings

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  1. P. G. Walsh

    P. G. Walsh

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  2. Apuleius

    Apuleius

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
81 global ratings

Top review from United Kingdom

M. Lawton
5.0 out of 5 stars He's not a golden ass, he's just a naughty boy!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2012
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Written in the second century AD, The Golden Ass, is as bawdy or tawdry (depending on your point of view) as a downmarket tabloid newspaper. Criminality, bestiality, avarice, eroticism, there's barely a single aspect of low-life human behaviour that doesn't feature in this book. What's striking is that mankind has changed so very little in the last two thousand years and the beauty of this book is that the writing is still so fresh that it vividly brings to life the reality of living in Antiquity.

The book also has the distinction of being one of the few ancient texts that contain any details about the Isis Mysteries, which the author is initiated into at the end of the book. Since initiates were sworn to secrecy, this doesn't amount to much but nonetheless gives a fascinating insight into the ritualistic and mystical elements surounding the Isis cult.

Some feel that the spiritual tone of this final section is rather at odds with the sordid catalogue of events in the rest of the book but it's message seems quite clear to me. Life can dump all sorts of crap on us and we can do our best to get out from under it but ultimately our chances of success simply rely on luck or a divine act of grace.

Robert Graves translation flows wonderfully and if, as some claim, he's taken quite a few liberties with the original Latin, I'm not particularly bothered because it makes for a great read.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Jenna
5.0 out of 5 stars As per description
Reviewed in Canada on 9 September 2020
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Very happy with purchase, quick delivery as described. Thank you!
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Brian C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly entertaining and...profound?
Reviewed in the United States on 9 April 2010
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The only other Roman novel I had read before picking up The Golden Ass was Petronius's novel The Satyricon which I found to be rather dull and slow going. No doubt that is largely due to the fact that we no longer possess The Satyricon in it's entirety, and it is difficult to get any sense of narrative continuity from the fragments we do possess. When I decided to read Apuleius's The Golden Ass, however, I was prepared for another slow, dull read. But I was pleasantly surprised.

This book has a number of qualities which recommend it when considered purely from a literary standpoint. First, the story itself is highly entertaining and is composed of a series of vignettes as the main character, Lucius, after being transformed into an ass, makes his way from one inevitably cruel master to another, and manages to narrowly escape death on a number of occasions. Secondly, Apuleius's tale gives us a glimpse into the wide variety of characters who were resident within the Roman empire at the time Apuleius was writing, as well as their manner of life, which is fascinating. And the last thing that recommends this novel purely as literature is it's humor which nearly every reviewer has drawn attention to.

But this book is more than "just literature" in the usual sense of that word. Ultimately this is a book about religious conversion and I was surprised to find myself as I read comparing it to Augustine's Confessions. I was also surprised by the profundity of the theology expressed in certain passages of the story. For example, at one point in the story Lucius has fallen in with a group of eunuchs who have devoted themselves to the worship of some nameless goddess. In devotion to her the eunuchs engage in all sorts of self-flagellation and work themselves up into a self-induced frenzy which they apparently consider a sign of divine immanence. As Lucius is watching all of this he thinks, "A strange notion, this, that divine immanency, instead of doing men good, enfeebles or disorders their senses" (pg. 190). This struck me as a fairly profound theological statement. It also struck me as very Platonic, and I was happy to have my suspicions about a possible Platonic influence on Apuleius's theology confirmed in Robert Graves's introduction.

I was also struck by the obvious and genuine depth of religious feeling expressed in the book, and which appears especially in Apuleius's description of the revelation of Isis at the end of the book. This description reminded me to some degree of a fragment of a relief that is depicted in Jane Harrison's Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion and which I believe was meant to represent Aphrodite emerging from the sea. I think the same beauty, radiance, and depth of religious feeling suffuses both Apuleius's description of the revelation of Isis and the relief of Aphrodite emerging from the sea. After studying both I do not find it hard to understand why many of the Romantic poets, such as Keats, turned to pagan religion for poetic inspiration. Isis's description of herself in Apuleius's account also reminded me to some degree of Krishna's description of himself in the Bhagavad Gita. So there is a lot in this book, and it is well worth the read!

Because of passages like the ones I quoted above I would recommend this book not only to those looking for a fun or entertaining read, but to anyone who is interested in the history of religion and Greek and Roman religion in particular. And I would recommend it especially to anyone who is under the illusion that pagan religion was nothing but an elaborate set of supersitions lacking in any real theological insight, or genuine sense of religious devotion. This book proves otherwise, and more than anything this work has reawoken an interest in me in studying both Greek and Roman religion and their theologies.
15 people found this helpful
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Israel Drazin
5.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile reading, lots of fun
Reviewed in the United States on 24 June 2018
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“The Golden Ass” was composed in Latin by Lucius Apuleius around 180 CE. It is the only ancient Latin fable that has survived. The story is about Lucius who travels from place to place in the beginning and end of the tale as a human, but in the middle as an ass, and encounters many people and goes through over a half dozen adventures and hears over half a dozen stories most of which are amusing and deal with sex with women and with beasts, drinking, crimes, and magic, the latter of which Lucius states interests him. Indeed, it was this interest that led to him being transformed into an ass. He had wanted to be turned into a bird, but he ingested the wrong potion. He is transformed into an ass and transferred or sold from one person to another and taken from place to place by various people, including robbers, to carry heavy loads. He is often mistreated. He hears people tell many stories, including the famed fairy tale of Cupid and Psyche (which I reviewed on Amazon). After a long period as an ass, a female god helps him return to his human shape and he decides to become a priest to the gods.
The original name of the book was “The Transformation of Lucius,” which the Christian leader Augustine called “The Golden Ass.” Both names refer to Lucius being transformed into an ass though magic. Augustine wrote in his “City of God,” 18:18, that while he believed in demons and that they had power over humans, they do not transform humans into animals, and the idea that it can be done though magic, as Apuleius asserts, is superstition. Yes, the story is not true. It is a fable and it is fun to read.
5 people found this helpful
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C. Collins
5.0 out of 5 stars A wild and entertaining romp of a novel
Reviewed in the United States on 7 March 2006
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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.
10 people found this helpful
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Scott H.
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, But Not That Funny
Reviewed in the United States on 12 April 2021
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This book is well written and lighthearted. In addition, I like this particular translation. It has some challenging vocabulary (for me anyway) and has a nice flow to it. I really wanted to find something that would make me laugh, but this didn't do it for me. Maybe I'm just an unsophisticated swine, but the jokes just seemed to repeat themselves through the book and weren't even that funny in the first place. I suppose if you have to have a more thorough understanding of Roman culture, this would appeal to you more.
One person found this helpful
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