Welcome to Litsy!

#ReadingAfrica2022 #Algeria 🇩🇿
This started as my 7th challenge book, but was overtaken and became my eighth. Technically, it's from the Roman Empire, but Apuleius was born in Madaura in the province of Numidia, which is now Algeria, so I'm claiming it (as, I imagine, the people of Algeria claim Apuleius).
Anyway, I loved this! It's an allegorical journey from worldliness to piety, using comedy and tragedy as its hooks. 👇🏼

This book, written about 158CE in the Roman province of Numidia, is both funnier and bawdier than I'd expected. Lots of double entendres, and some occasionally crude single ones. I'm chuckling more than I'd expected to 😆
In his introduction, Robert Graves says that other works of Apuleius are of a more refined literary style, and that The Golden Ass is knowingly written in the knockabout style of street-corner storytellers. I'm loving it so far.

Seventh book for #ReadingAfrica2022 #Algeria 🇩🇿
While Apuleius was a citizen of the Roman Empire, he was born in what is now Algeria, and lived most of his life in North Africa, so I think he qualifies for the challenge 🙂
I have Robert Graves' translation in a 1960 Folio edition, rather time-worn and with damp damage (not unlike myself), but with some wonderfully licentious illustrations, such as these end-papers, by Michael Ayrton.

I finished my 2nd planned book for #FabulousFebruary . This rare complete text from the 2nd century BCE had an important influence on later writers like Cervantes, Shakespeare, Dickens, etc. and I read it more for its foundational importance in Western lit more than for enjoyment. The stories are often crude and bawdy. Also interesting for its depiction of life under Roman rule and its last chapter about the redemptive powers of the goddess Isis.

My #WeekendReading is set!

The only preserved novel of the Roman Empire is notable for its simple straightforward language (in translation, but apparently also in Latin), its heavy play on Roman taboos, especially sexual ones, its love of story telling and maybe its hidden complexities. Playful overall and an enjoyable read.

Ok, so I finished this book this morning. I‘ve been keeping a book list since December of 1990, and this book is 1000 on my list. Finally, four digits. Big personal milestone. But... I mean, seriously!?? 28 years of reading to get to The Golden Ass. 🤦🏻‍♂️

*27 year old being a 12 year old moment*

When you‘re scrolling quickly through Book Outlet and have to do a double take 😂😂

The only Latin novel to have survived intact, The Golden Ass is an irreverent & lively story. Obsessed by magic, Lucius is mistakenly provided the potion for transforming into an ass, rather than a bird. Lucius recounts his mishaps & observations as he travels around, ostensibly searching for a simple antidote. Occasionally his observations on human behavior borders on the satirical & easily calls to mind Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The episodic👇

I love #mythology and it's the core of much of the classes I take. This is part of my collection of classical mythology. More posts will follow as there are many more cultures with their own mythology 😊

#aprilbookshowers
@RealLifeReading

I besprinkled their faces with my liquid dung and forced them to leave off.

"'[. . .] Stupid people always dismiss as untrue anything that happens only seldom, or anything that their minds cannot readily grasp; yet when these things are carefully inquired into they are often found not only possible but probable. [. . .]'"