The Golden Asse

A fantastic novel combining the marvelous and the realistic, the Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass shows the narrative ability of Apuleius of Madaura (125-180 AD), who knew how to transform the magical adventure of its protagonist, the curious Lucio, into An extensive story of surprising rhythm and color that combines the fictional outline of the traveling adventures with the horror tales and the stories about female deceits. Satire and irony are combined with humor in the grotesque perspective of the ass, observer and martyr of a social reality revealed in his human sordidness. The comic pathos of this event with a happy ending, together with the grace of the interspersed stories (such as the famous one of Cupid and Psyche), gives the work a singular literary appeal.