OCTOBER 2019 - AudioFile
Sounding downright jovial at times, Jonathan Keeble uses a classic aristocratic English delivery to portray Encolpius, the ex-gladiator and polished raconteur who narrates this satirical proto-novel. He leads the listener on a historically insightful, hilarious, thoroughly exotic, and erotically charged romp through a series of gay bordellos, opulent estates, detailed deviant sexual practices, and vulgar feasts in the time of Emperor Nero’s Rome. Author Gaius Petronius’s character sketches and comic dialogues can sound amazingly modern—think John Waters in a toga. SATYRICON will certainly be heard as a stinging comedy of manners, but there is also room to hear it as a 1,900-year-old “coming-out” declaration for ancient LGBTQ rights and recognition. Fascinating and anciently X-rated. B.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
[Ruden] has caught, better than any translator known to me, both the conversational patterns of Petronian dialogue and the camera-sharp specificity and color of the Satyricon's descriptive passages. . . . A quite extraordinary achievement against heavy odds. —Peter Green, The Los Angeles Times Book Review
Relying on. . . her excellent knowledge of Latin, her lively feel for contemporary slang and rhythm, and her infectious love of the work, [Ruden] gives us the full Satyricon; she shows us a man making a comic masterpiece out of Neronian chaos. . . . Her book as a whole, breathing knowledge and affection, is a delight. —Donald Lyons, The New Criterion
This is a really useful volume which can readily be recommended as a set text to students. The ten commentaries at the end are judicious overviews of important topics connected with the work and the suggestions for further reading are up-to-date and intelligent. —Susanna Morton Braund, Yale University
OCTOBER 2019 - AudioFile
Sounding downright jovial at times, Jonathan Keeble uses a classic aristocratic English delivery to portray Encolpius, the ex-gladiator and polished raconteur who narrates this satirical proto-novel. He leads the listener on a historically insightful, hilarious, thoroughly exotic, and erotically charged romp through a series of gay bordellos, opulent estates, detailed deviant sexual practices, and vulgar feasts in the time of Emperor Nero’s Rome. Author Gaius Petronius’s character sketches and comic dialogues can sound amazingly modern—think John Waters in a toga. SATYRICON will certainly be heard as a stinging comedy of manners, but there is also room to hear it as a 1,900-year-old “coming-out” declaration for ancient LGBTQ rights and recognition. Fascinating and anciently X-rated. B.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
