Ovid Surveyed An Abridgement for the General Reader of 'Ovid Recalled'

Ovid was, despite his faults, what Macaulay called him, 'a good fellow'. But he was also a wit, the product of an age of refinement. More important, he was an artist with conscious mastery of a great range of literary artifice; his poetry has a studied movement, a grace, a rich and patterned surface, a music, that have appealed to readers and writers with an ear for ' technique' ever since. In this 1962 volume, Mr Wilkinson writes to communicate his own evident enjoyment and understanding of Ovid's fortunes. A life tells what is known of the poet, and serves as a framework to the account of the poetry. This book, an abridgement of Ovid Recalled, is designed particularly for those who have no Latin: no special knowledge is assumed, and the ample quotation is translated into heroic couplets. The result is a delightful and serviceable introduction to Ovid.

Introduction; Part I. Early Years; Part II. Latin Erotic Elegy; Part III. The Elegaic Couplet; Part IV. The Amores; Part V. The Heroides; Part VI. The Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris; Part VII. The Metamorphoses: 1. Spirit and treatment; 2. Grotesqueness, humour, wit; 3. Narrative and description; 4. The gods; 5. Mortals; 6. Philosophy; 7. Italy and Rome; 8. Drama, rhetoric, words; 9. Conclusion; Part VIII. The Fasti; Part IX. Banishment: Tristia I and II; Part X. Tristia III-V, Ibis, Epistulae ex Ponto; Part XI. The Middle Ages; Part XII. The Renaissance; Epilogue; Indexes.

In this 1962 volume, Mr Wilkinson writes to communicate his own evident enjoyment and understanding of Ovid's fortunes. A life tells what is known of the poet, and serves as a framework to the account of the poetry. This book is designed particularly for those who have no Latin.