A review by quisby
The Golden Ass by Apuleius
4.0
Some sections were icky and potentially misogynistic* enough in that special late Empire kind of way that I can't recommend it in good conscience. Which is too bad, cuz it's accessible for late Latin stuff. Kind of the grandaddy of the picaresque, so lots of framed stories and a pantheon of dei ex machina. Some of them (like the Cupid & Psyche episode) are phenomenal. The soaring, borderline-rococo climax of that particular episode is book-ended with the somewhat less high-flying: "That then was the tale told by the drunken garrulous old woman to the captive girl."
*Interesting though that Isis ("mother of the universe") is responsible for Lucius' restoration. Unless the whole final book is actually like an über-Boccaccio, with Lucius playing religious cuckold/cult initiate to Isis. So the whole story's a meta-Boccaccio, w/ Lucius + reader alike being cuckolded by Isis like the other 136754 duped men in the inset stories.
*Interesting though that Isis ("mother of the universe") is responsible for Lucius' restoration. Unless the whole final book is actually like an über-Boccaccio, with Lucius playing religious cuckold/cult initiate to Isis. So the whole story's a meta-Boccaccio, w/ Lucius + reader alike being cuckolded by Isis like the other 136754 duped men in the inset stories.