In this historical fiction novel of ancient Rome, the famous poet Ovid travels to the Black Sea and returns with a new muse and love interest: the exotic, young witch, Xenia. The couple's relationship is atypical, and the narrative spirals towards a new imagining of the reason for Ovid's final exile from the city. The language is beautiful and lyrical, adding much to my experience of the story, and Alison created a seamless and compelling Rome. I loved the mystery and artistry in this book.

Poetic Justice

This intriguing, tightly woven tale grabbed me from the la prima pagina with its lush evocative prose and mercurial movement.

Ovid was exiled from Rome… we know from history, but scholars continue to ponder and argue the reasons for and nature of this bitterly harsh banishment. The play that was to be his masterpiece “Medea” remains forever only a few lines of enigmatic prose.

Springing from this enigma, the story of the magical Xenia ... Xenia, a foreigner, a baby left adrift, only to blossom into a very powerful enchanting female force, ablaze, untamable and capable of magical forces. Exotic and erotic, she yearns to acquire the quinta essentia, the substance of life! Possessing an ineffable feminine jouissance, Xenia’s character is strongly sensual, yet softly childlike.

The back-story that Ms. Allison weaves is a deeply wrought, yet finely tuned instrument …icy hot…mythically mad… and passionately portrayed!

Within this duality of human nature, sex and power converge to excite and entice the reader to travel with Xenia and Ovid over the wild animals housed beneath the stones of Rome while feeling the electricity flowing between their very souls.
I walked the stone streets and felt the marble statues; inhaled the fragrant herbs and felt the warmth of Roman baths wash over me…the prose was so radiantly rendered!

My heart knew the twist that would close this journey, but it takes careful attention to the movement in this cleverly crafted novel to fully realize what Ms. Allison ultimately offers up!

I hope to read more from this enchanting author!… I’d especially love to follow Xenia deeper into the Black Sea over the pebbles and back into that water where she came crashing up through the bubbles into the fresh air! Exhilarating!

Highly recommended!

Had this book not been assigned to me for a course, I most likely would not have picked it up. And that, my friends, would be a sorrow and a pity; I would have missed out on something brilliant.

Author Jane Alison has created one of the most lyrical novels I've ever read. Her book imagines Ovid as he writes his "Medea" (only two lines of which survive), inspired by two women in his life: Xenia and Julia.

One of the things I found most interesting about this book is how little dialogue was used. Alison shows us what the three main characters are thinking and feeling, while creating an impression that they seldom speak about those feelings or the decisions that result from them. From the moment Ovid meets Xenia in the Caucasus to the time that they part company, we have a picture of Ovid's Rome (and Xenia's disturbing visions of its future), with all of the politics and violence that were at play during his time. We also see three people steeped in their own needs and not caring that they use others around them as pawns.

The prose in this book is nothing short of gorgeous. Fans of literary and historical fiction will both find much to like here.

"The Love Artist" is the story of the famous poet, Ovid, and his exile from Rome. Not much is known about why exactly he was exiled. Not much is known about what his life was like when he was exiled. The author is able to take what we do know and create a fascinating story about what may have happened to Ovid during that time period.

The book is definitely a quiet one and takes a little while to truly hit its stride. It eventually gets there but it just takes a little bit. It slowly unfolds as we find out about Ovid's exile and the woman that he meets there that will change the course of his life, both personal and creative. He very quickly falls in love with a woman that may have become the muse for Ovid's Medea, of which only two lines survive today. This woman is mysterious. She may even have some magical qualities and she may actually be a witch. Ovid molds her character into the perfect character for his work.

I liked the settings in this book most of all. I still have not read all that much historical fiction set in ancient times and I really find myself appreciating books that have a lot of detail about the setting. I love armchair traveling and definitely appreciated exploring somewhere new.

Overall, this was an interesting look at Ovid's life.

Дочитала наконец-то роман «Певец любви» Джейн Элисон об Овидии, обязательный к прочтению на курсе по исторической литературе от Виргинского университета, который я сейчас слушаю на Курсере.
⠀
Цель у меня, как вы понимаете, любопытная. Возможно, есть кое-какие задумки когда-нибудь попробовать что-нибудь написать самой, но это пока очень эфемерно. Пока что я в принципе хочу понять, как работают писатели, особенно как работают те из них, что пишут исторические романы. У людей из литературного мира считается трудным взять реальные факты и перемешать их с вымыслом, чтобы получилась живая, увлекательная картинка, от которой у читателя осталось бы полное ощущение: «да, так всё и было». Здесь тонкий баланс правды и лжи, того, что было на самом деле, и выдумки. От того, насколько этот баланс выдержан, зависит успех исторического романа.
⠀
«Певец любви» в этом плане хороший пример. Для Джейн Элисон поэт Овидий был кумиром, она изучала его творчество много лет, переводила его элегии, даже жила какое-то время в тех же городах, что и он. Можно сказать, присутствовала некая «одержимость». Возможно, это обязательный компонент для писателя — быть чуточку «одержимым» страной, эпохой и персонажем, о котором ты пишешь. Получилось убедительно.
⠀
Я думаю, что «Певца любви» будет полезно прочитать пишущим людям, чтобы наглядно увидеть, как с помощью мельчайших деталей можно воссоздать давно ушедшую эпоху, оживить давно умерших людей. Остальных увлечёт сюжет со множеством интриг и поворотов. Здесь много магии, переплетённой с искусством. Ведь речь об истории создания легендарной трагедии Овидия «Медея», которая не уцелела и от которой до нас дошло лишь несколько строк.
⠀
Это было захватывающе. Рекомендую.

I usually love Greek tragedies, but this Roman romance was really compelling and beautifully written. Would have liked more story.

beautiful writing, absolutely atmospheric and prosaic. but damn my guy has some sweaty ass wrists.

This book had the plot, characters, and setting to be something very interesting, but ended up being just strange to me because of the passive tone that was used and strong tendency for the text to imply and not simply just say. Perhaps I don’t know enough about ancient Roman history or customs, but I was confounded by some of the vocabulary and customs described in this book and too uninvested in the reading of the book to spend the time looking up terminology. The mysterious photo of Jennifer Lawrence on the cover doesn’t help matters as I don’t think it was ever made into a movie. Overall, I rate this book a confusing slog.

Probably 3.5

Definitely Jane Alison must have been an admirer of Ovid’s work because this book is an stem letter to him, and his work.

The love artist is an attempt to imagine the context and circumstances of Ovid’s exile by telling a story about a prior trip he took to the shores of the Black Sea and what he found there. So, yeah, if this sounds interesting it turns out to be a nonstop reading book because adding that kind of mystery and tension that the story kept, the references and passages with Ovid’s work -specially his Metamorphoses- and that is chef kiss!

Regarding the characters I think that Jane Alison’ Ovid was the Ovid that introduced me at the beginning and at the end of the Metamorphoses. My intention is not quote the Metamorphoses but at the very beginning he writes in first person the help of the gods and at the end he said his wish to be remembered forever. So, throughout the story Jane Alison present us an Ovid that all he wants is to be immortal, in other words remembered as a poet like Horace, in page 14 she describes “He was edgy; he was sick of his frivolous reputation: he wanted his imagine transformed. Vergil, Horace -they were true poets, gray and grave and weathered, heaven-borne already. But with Metamorphoses he thought he’d begun to shed that wearisome slick skin.” Talking about this constant comparison with those poets, I found that Ovid is constantly doubting himself, he just can only imagine that he is false. Ovid becomes a quivering gel of doubt, self-doubt so often. He is full of doubt about what he is making and what would happen with his name and work. In consequence, his most common fear is being forgotten and that fear moves the majority of his actions, specially against Xenia.

Now let’s talk about these kind of magic, mysterious, strange and Ovid’s character: Xenia. What I understand is that she is kind of an analog in Ovid’s time for Medea, a riddle. It's difficult for Ovid to get a handle on her, but she also is her the muse. One thing that caught my attention is that Ovid never gets to know completely who really is Xenia and that generates a conflict between the Ovid writer and Ovid human. And what I think attracts him the most is that Xenia is rare, everything Ovid needs wants, and never thinks of deserves that. Also the fact that she knows what Ovid wants but didn’t tell him. I found this character so “mythical” like all the nymphs that Ovid exposed us in his Metamorphoses.

And the last character that I found string and at the same time the darkest was Julia. She is the granddaughter of Augustus who is the sort of person behind a lot of what has been going on with Ovid. She is an unhappy woman, being made to be pregnant to bear a child for the empire. The thing that caught my attention was the motifs of her actions. She searched revenge, she is a vengeful woman.

The jealously that exists between Xenia and Ovid. List what others have. One of the things that bind them is a want there. They want something but don't get it. They are so bound because Xenia has exactly what Ovid needs, and he has exactly what Xenia needs, so they have to be attached. Is a terrible and competitive thing. Also, they fear being replaced and have jealous love. So we have like a negative trait.

I found the writing style poetic, Ovid’s prose, but on some passages I get a little confused. But in general it was a good book that transport me into that Roman Empire epoch.

I read this book for a historical fiction class I was taking through Coursera and it's probably the only reason I would've read it. Either it's written for suuuuuper intelligent people or else I'm super stupid because I didn't understand a single word. It all seemed a mumble jumble mess of random words strung together.

This lurid take into a fictional account of Ovid and his muse was original. But the writing was thick and I felt as though there was a veil across the entire novel which deepened the mystery and mood.

see my review at Reading World.