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zmb's review
5.0
Who knew erotic satire could be so thoroughly amusing? Ovid's tone is full of laughter, his poetry sparkling, his advice bombastic and disingenuous.
justabookholic's review
3.0
An odd read, I came into this book not really knowing any specifics on what it was about except it was a book of Roman poetry and what I got was... what could be best described as a collection of intentionally (from my interpretation) bad romantic advice that was mostly geared toward men. Two-thirds of the book was used to give "instruction"to men on how to seduce women. I got the impression early on that the prose were meant to be satirical and it was stated on the back that it was "mock-didactic elegy" so the mentions of assault and getting both parties drunk (trigger warning: there is mention of rape) were more to be a criticism than actual sound advice. I did find that certain parts made me laugh out loud due to the ridiculousness of it but there was a fair amount of the prose where the false "instructions" given by Ovid was just too irritating to me. I wouldn't recommend it to those who don't enjoy satire or is unfamiliar with Roman mythology as it does mention a great deal of legends, Roman Gods, and other notable Roman figures in the book. The translation was also a bit too modernized for my taste but it did lead to a few laughs so take that to account and this edition does include the original Latin right beside the English translation.
nugat's review
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Ovid was a great poet but please have distance to this work. Don't apply his advices now because he was a creep.
s_books's review against another edition
3.0
This book has Ovid's writings on the different facets of "love" (really just sexual relations and seduction, not so much else). The art of beauty is actually quite dated and the topic is dealt with a bit better in Book III of the Art of Love. This works are equally silly and serious and the translation is good, making it easy and enjoyable to read.