With accuracy, wit, and intelligence, this remarkable new translation of The Golden Ass breathes new life into Apuleius' classic work. Sarah Ruden, a lyric poet as well as a highly respected translator, skilfully duplicates the verbal high jinks of Apuleius' 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 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, belongs to the Second Sophistic, a movement of learned but wildly 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' style.

Sarah Ruden is a visiting scholar at Wesleyan University. Her books include a translation of Vergil's Aeneid and Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time.

"This new translation of Apuleius’s novel stands alone for its accuracy and cleverly farcical rendering."—Bookseller’s Buyer’s Guide