Elegies of Love

by Ovid, Auguste Rodin (Illustrations), Christopher Marlowe (Translation)

Near the end of his life, Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) began creating astonishingly an improvisatory and free life drawings. First published in a very limited edition in 1939, 31 of these drawings are paired here with selected Love Elegies from Ovid, one of Rodin’s favorite authors. With Christopher Marlowe’s glittering translation highlighting Ovid’s work, Rodin’s stunning art seems alive on the page in this unique volume.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horatius, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus exiled him to Tomis, the capital of the newly-organised province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a "poem and a mistake", but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.
Ovid is most famous for the Metamorphoses, a continuous mythological narrative in fifteen books written in dactylic hexameters. He is also known for works in elegiac couplets such as Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") and Fasti. His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology today.

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The description of this book says it was burned and banned previously…. It should have stayed that way
I only finished this book because I refused to be beaten by a 63 paged book…

[Roisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful and lively book, with beautiful, sensitive woodcut illustrations by Rodin. This translation was originally banned and publicly burnt in 1599 by then Archbishop of Canterbury. Read and enjoy!