Metamorphoses (Perfect Library) - Softcover

Ovid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1512322075 ISBN 13: 9781512322071

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

"Metamorphoses" from Ovid. Roman poet best known for the Metamorphoses (43B.C.-17A.D.).

About this title

Review:

David Horovitch's richly enunciated delivery is a superb vehicle for the classical style, with its elevated diction and its elaborate rhetorical and poetic figures. Ovid poses a special challenge, and only a reader with expert pacing, matched with a sensitivity to nuances of tone and language, could deliver this text to its full impact. This Ovid is a delight. Horovitch expresses both Ovid's elegance and his lightness of touch. A word like 'nectar' drips with honeyed sweetness, and even 'water' sounds multisyllabic. Ovid's tales of change and transformation 'Actaeon into a stag, Zeus into a bull, the whole of reality in a constant state of metamorphosis' offer as enduring a vision as any in literature. Horovitch has a great voice for the classics. --D.A.W., AudioFile

I hadn't realised before what a comprehensive collection of stories it contains: Greek and Roman myths, but also Roman history up to the time of Julius Caesar. One story leads to another like Chinese puzzle balls, some tragic, some erotic, some satirical. No wonder it has been influential ever since it was completed in AD8. David Horovitch's warm, trenchant voice is perfect for Johnston's graceful and natural-sounding lines. --Christina Hardyment, The Times

About the Author:

Ovid (43 BCE-18 CE) was born at Sulmo (modern Sulmona) in central Italy. Coming from a wealthy Roman family and seemingly destined for a career in politics, he held minor official posts before leaving public service to write, becoming the most distinguished poet of his time. His works, all published by Penguin Classics, include Amores, a collection of short love poems; Heroides, verse-letters written by mythological heroines to their lovers; Ars Amatoria, a satirical handbook on love; and Metamorphoses, his epic work that has inspired countless writers and artists through the ages. David Raeburn (translator) is a lecturer in Classics at Oxford, and has also translated Sophocles' Electra and Other Plays for Penguin Classics. Denis Feeney (introducer) is a professor of Classics at Princeton. Coralie Bickford-Smith (cover illustrator) is an award-winning designer at Penguin Books (U.K.), where she has created several highly acclaimed series designs. She studied typography at Reading University and lives in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1512322075
• ISBN 13: 9781512322071
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 440
• Editor: The Perfect Library