8 h 59 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your hunger for magic leaves you with a donkey’s body—and a clear view of everyone’s secrets?
In The Golden Asse by Apuleius, Lucius travels to Thessaly eager to see real witchcraft. Warnings only sharpen his curiosity. With help from Fotis, a quick-witted maid and his lover, he reaches for a chance to change his shape. He hopes to fly as a bird. Instead, he becomes a donkey.
Now a beast of burden, Lucius passes through a world of robbers, priests, millers, cooks and cheating wives. Nobody thinks to hide anything from an animal. His adventures mix laughter with cruelty, while stories open inside other stories. At their center lies the fairy tale of Cupid and Psyche, where beauty and curiosity bring dangers of their own.
What you’ll discover
- Curiosity with a cost Follow a man whose need to see forbidden things puts his human shape at risk.
- Secrets before a donkey See what people reveal when they think the creature watching cannot tell their stories.
- Magic in the kitchen Meet Fotis, whose teasing warmth draws Lucius closer to her mistress’s dangerous spells.
- Cupid and Psyche Step into a fairy tale of beauty, envy and curiosity within Lucius’s rough adventures.
- Laughter with sharp edges Explore the Roman world through a restless tale where mischief and cruelty travel together.
Who will love it
For readers who love picaresque adventure, dark comedy, fairy tales and stories inside stories, and anyone curious about daily life in the Roman world.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A curious young man rides into Thessaly
- A maid, a mistaken fight, and a town laughing
- The wrong box of ointment
- Life in the robbers' cave
- Cupid and Psyche, a fairy tale at the center
- Psyche's curiosity and the tasks of Venus
- Sold from master to master
- What the story is really about
- How the tale is told
Who’s who
- LuciusA young man from a good family who travels to Thessaly, hungry to see real magic, and tells the whole story himself.
- FotisPamphile's quick-witted maid, who becomes Lucius's lover and agrees to help him spy on her mistress's spells.
- PamphileMilo's wife, whom the whole town believes to be a witch who changes her shape and charms young men.
- MiloA rich and stingy moneylender in Hypata who gives Lucius a poor welcome and shares his house with a dangerous wife.
- ByrrhenaA wealthy relative of Lucius in Hypata who welcomes him warmly and warns him to beware of Pamphile.
- ChariteA young bride seized on her wedding day by robbers, who weeps in their cave and longs to go home.
- PsycheThe youngest daughter of a king in the tale within the tale, so beautiful that she stirs the anger of Venus.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 59 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Golden Asse
by Apuleius · 170
Lucius seeks magic in Thessaly, but a mistake with an ointment costs him his human shape.
Challenging5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Golden Asse is a Latin novel by Apuleius, a writer from North Africa who worked in the Roman Empire in the second century. Its Latin title is Metamorphoses, which means changes of shape.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A curious young man rides into Thessaly
Lucius is a young man of good family who travels to Thessaly on business. The region, in northern Greece, has a reputation across the ancient world for witches who can bend nature to their will. A sensible traveler would be wary. Lucius is thrilled instead. He wants to see magic with his own eyes, and that hunger drives the whole book.
On the road he falls in with two men arguing about whether a story is true. One of them, Aristomenes, tells the tale of his friend Socrates, whom he found ragged and ruined in a strange town. The cause was a witch who had taken the man in and then drained his life away. Aristomenes tries to save his friend, and the night that follows is grim and strange. Lucius listens with open delight, which tells you a lot about him.
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What is The Golden Ass about?
It is about Lucius, a curious young man who goes to Thessaly to see magic, is accidentally turned into a donkey, and lives through a string of owners, robbers and strange tales while trying to become human again.
Why is it called The Golden Ass?
The author's own title was Metamorphoses, meaning changes of shape. Later readers, among them the church writer Augustine, called it The Golden Ass, probably to praise its worth, and that name stuck.
What is the story of Cupid and Psyche in this book?
It is a fairy tale told by an old woman inside the main story. It follows a beautiful girl who marries a husband she may never see, and who must face the anger of Venus.
The author
Apuleius
125–170 · Ancient Roman novelist and philosopher
2nd-century Numidian Latin-language writer, rhetorician and philosopher.
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