Ocean State Libraries

"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 mistreated...

The time is now, the place is Italy, particularly the enchanted lake at Nemi, southeast of Rome, where the Temple of Diana once stood. The people form an extraordinary frieze of votaries of love and money, with the goddess-like American heiress Maggie at the center, justly famed for her beauty, her wealth, and the steeliness of her will -- Amazon.com.

Jordan Chase owes his success as a businessman to his sensitivity to ancient sacred places. When he visits the tomb of Agamemnon, he experiences a prophetic vision. Simultaneously, an attractive but disturbed woman, Lelia, begins to insinuate herself into the lives of a group of tourists. At first her presence is merely disruptive, but it later becomes destructive. Unknown perhaps even to herself, Lelia has tapped into the mystical energy of Greece...

APULEIUS, Lucius, religious philosopher and rhetorician, was born c. A.D. 125 at Madaura in N. Africa. Educated at Carthage and Athens, he travelled in Greece and Asia Minor, became an advocate in Rome, and later returned to Africa. When he married Pudentilla he vindicated himself against her parents' accusation that he practiced magic. The rest of his life he spent at Carthage writing and lecturing and performing priestly duties. Of his extant genuine...