Originally published in 1955, this introductory text was created for the general reader or students of the classics seeking a greater understanding of Ovid.

"This book was first published in 1955, after a lean period for Ovidian studies. In it, L. P. Wilkinson set out to restore Ovid to his rightful position. Writing for the educated reader as well as for students of the Classics, he examines Ovid's life and work, quoting extensively from Ovid's poetry both in Latin and almost invariably also in his own English verse translation, making the book easily accessible to those with no Latin."--BOOK JACKET.

Ovid's poetry is haunted obsessively by a sense both of the living fullness of the texts and of the emptiness of these 'insubstantial pageants'. This major study touches on the whole of Ovid's output, from the Amores to the exile poetry, and is an overarching treatment of illusionism and the textual conjuring of presence in the corpus. Modern critical and theoretical approaches, accompanied by close readings of individual passages, examine the topic from the points of view of poetics and rhetoric, aesthetics, the psychology of desire, philosophy, religion and politics. There are also case studies of the reception of Ovid's poetics of illusion in Renaissance and modern literature and art. The book will interest students and scholars of Latin and later European literatures. All foreign languages are accompanied by translations.

A stimulating investigation of some of Ovid's source-material.

Ovid's Changing Worlds looks at the four most important English imitations of the Metamorphoses in the English Renaissance: the translations of Arthur Golding and George Sandys, Spenser's Faerie Queene, and Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion. It sheds new light on dealings with the classics in the period and shows that the emergence of English literature was a complex and fascinating process.

This book provides a unique and accessible introduction to the complete works of Ovid. Using a thematic approach, Volk lays out what we know about Ovid's life, presents the author's works within their poetic genres, and discusses central Ovidian themes. The first general introduction to Ovid written in English in over 20 years, offering the very latest Ovidian scholarship Discusses the complete works of Ovid Accessible writing and a thematic approach make this text ideal for a broad audience A current revival in Ovid makes this timely edition highly valuable

The first complete commentary in English on Ovid's Metamorphoses, covering textual interpretation, poetics, imagination, and ideology.

This is the first intermediate-student edition of a selection from Ovid's Heroides. Heroides VI, lines 1–100 and 127–64, and Heroides X, lines 1–76 and 119–50 are included as Latin text with an accompanying commentary and vocabulary. Focusing on a deliberately limited number of poems, this edition is designed to be manageable for students reading the text for the first time while also perfectly encapsulating the interest of Ovid's other work and inspiring further study of it. A detailed introduction explains points of historical and stylistic interest, encompassing the full text of both poems, including sections omitted here from the Latin, and also Heroides IV. The heroines of the Heroides are women in love who can do nothing but write sad verse letters to their faithless lovers across the sea. They tell their stories and express their feelings in poetry of great power and psychological subtlety. Hypsipyle (in VI) and Ariadne (in X) are feminists before feminism, royal ladies who are slaves to their passion – these women are given a voice by Ovid in poetry which is at once simple and sophisticated, heartfelt and yet also full of irony and literary resonance.