The Art of Love

Description

'Any man who shows, with such poetic readability, that what is happening between the sexes today was happening two thousand years ago - and that, therefore, the beating out of one's guilt-ridden, female brains is something of a waste of time - has to be a hero' - Independent The perfect gift for Valentine's Day TRANSLATED BY TOM PAYNE AND INTRODUCED BY HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON The Art of Love may have been written in the days of gladiators and emperors, but Ovid remains the smartest teacher on the subject of love in all of history, and his advice is enduringly useful and entertaining. Between these covers you'll find all you need to know about where to meet a new beau, how to handle illicit affairs and how to maintain your allure. This edition also contains the companion volume The Cure for Love - in case things don't work out.

Publius Ovidius Naso was born in Italy on 20 March 43 BC. He was educated in Rome and worked as a public official before taking up poetry full-time. His earliest surviving work is the collection of love poems called the Amores, which was followed by the Heroides. The Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) and the Remedia Amoris (The Cure for Love) were probably written between 2 BC and 2 AD. These were followed by his two epic poems the Fasti and the Metamorphoses. In 8 AD Ovid fell out of favour with the Emperor Augustus due to a 'carmen et error' ('a poem and a mistake') and was banished to what is now Romania. While in exile he wrote Tristia, Ibis and the Epistulae ex Ponto which consists of letters appealing for help in his efforts to be recalled to Rome. Ovid died in exile in 18 AD. Tom Payne was born in 1971. He read Classics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. For four years he was deputy literary editor of the Daily Telegraph. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Dorset, and teaches English and Classics at Sherborne School.

With its jaunty, cunning and infernally clever rhyming couplets, Tom Payne's new translation is an utter treat from first to last...a sparkling foreword by Hephzibah Anderson...this effervescent Art of Love will be a lasting joy. * Independent * This sums Ovid up: Cerebral and sensual; but wit first -- Ruth Padel Rome's wittiest poet * Independent on Sunday * His wit, fluency and erotic treatises made him one of the most influential writers of ancient times * Independent * Much of Ovid's advice would not go amiss today * Guardian *