The Golden Ass

by Apuleius

Sarah Ruden (View Bio)
Yale University Press, 2012

Sarah Ruden’s new translation of The Golden Ass rebirths Apuleius' classic work.  A poet as well as a highly respected translator, she skillfully duplicates the verbal high jinks of Apuleius' ever-popular novel, which tells the story of a young man, Lucius, who is turned into a donkey.  He is doomed to wander and to suffer at the hands of a series of owners until at last restored to human form.  The first Latin novel to survive in its entirety, The Golden Ass was part of a movement of learned and inventive literature. In a translation both faithful and entertaining, Ruden reveals the vivid force of Apuleius' farcical imagination and ingenious style.