Why was Ovid, the most popular writer of his era, banished to the remote town of Tomis in the Black Sea from the seat of the Empire's power, Rome, and the side of his patron, Augustus?

Why are merely two lines of Medea, widely touted as his most ardent and accomplished work, the only surviving remnant of this play?

Between the historical facts of Ovid’s life, his admission that a poem and a mistake were the pillars of his ruin, and these tantalising enigmas, Jane Alison has wrought a hauntingly romantic drama of psychological manipulation and sensual intrigue.

Holidaying in the Black Sea on the outskirts of the Roman Empire and avoiding the potential displeasure of Augustus, Ovid chances upon an almost unearthly woman who epitomises the fantastical elements of his about-to-be published Metamorphoses. A delectable, desirable, alluring combination of mystic and witch, Xenia seems myth translated into life. Ovid is enchanted, obsessed, almost as a virgin youth experiencing his first love, he is brimming with inspiration: Xenia will be the muse for his pièce de résistance. But this time, he renders his subject seductively dark and twisted.

When autumn arrives, Ovid tempts Xenia from her home on the coast of the Black Sea to Rome with the promise of immortality only an artist can bequeath. The ineluctable noose of ambition lures Ovid and he enters a Faustian contract, deceiving his muse and hurling them both towards a retribution he never imagined. As Ovid and Xenia become entangled in his art-inspiring-life conspiracy and the schemes of his patrons, so the reader is ensnared in this chilling yet enthralling re-telling of the events leading to Ovid’s banishment.

The Love Artist is an exotic, brilliant and utterly compelling meditation on love, genius, and the artist's (and his or her muse) unswerving quest for immortality. Ms Alison’s prose is as bewitching as Xenia is described, as sensual and steamy as Ovid’s The Art of Love, and as flawlessly complex and evocative of Ancient Rome as any cinematic poem scribed by the classical poets.

Ms Alison foreshadows the events that will eventually engulf Ovid by opening her story with the journey of his exile to Tomis, but the story proper commences in the light and heat and smells of summer and the joy of the first stirrings of unexpected, overwhelming, infatuation. As the seasons fade into winter, so the menace of Ovid's plotting and the machinations of shadowy puppeteers shroud the protagonists until each is propelled along a path that can only result in a terrifying, profoundly disturbing conclusion.

Readers of lusciously written character-driven prose, who enjoy fictional history of the ancient world, with breath-taking twists of plot and consequence, will not be disappointed with The Love-Artist.

I don't usually read historical fiction. Despite my own personal biases, Jane Alison manages to create an interesting what-if scenario to an obscure part of history while (mostly) staying true to the time.

The overall plot and the intertwining narrative binding the characters together was captivating. Julia and Ovid were standout characters, but I feel Xenia was only defined by her motive and by being a fantastical, foreign presence.

I really enjoyed the characterization of Ovid in particular. The author represented him well through his physical description and demeanor; however, I am not sure how I feel about Ovid being a creative fraud, and about him being quite malicious. Even though the ending heavily depended on that, it was satisfying.

I wavered heavily between three stars or four, but ultimately decided on four because the narrative held my attention throughout, and I enjoyed the numerous dichotomies the author set up through the imagery and the characters.

Read for ''Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction'' on Coursera.

This book was not horrible. I give 2 stars to books I think are okay. Maybe it deserves 3 stars. A lot of people would probably love it. I just don't enjoy this kind of book. I need an interesting, well-executed plot. Sorry, I just do. Unless you're Cormac McCarthy (or other master of prose, you know what I mean). Then you can get away with it. The author does have some beautiful moments here and there. Unfortunately, the writing is overwrought, and mostly, painful to read--each sentence tortured out, barely. The pacing is excruciating and the dialogue nearly non-existent. Some lovely, lyrical moments there though.

Excellent book full of unique characters and beautifully described/imagined people, places, things, circumstances, and inner feelings/thoughts. There is a lot of reference to mythology, and Ovid's work that I enjoyed looking up and digging into. Alison's intriguing, well spun story sparked an interest in his poetry for me. I have ordered two translations of Metamorphoses and can't wait to dive in, interested in hearing from him now that I have read about him from Alison's point-of-view. This book provides an uncommon adventure for a reader that likes a story with some meat on its bones, but for the reader that likes their stories to be kept light with little need for thought or reflection it may not be as interesting.

Evocative novel about the banishment of the great Roman poet Ovid to the shores of the Black Sea. We know this happened but we don't know exactly why even though we have Ovid's poignant letters home in which he refers to a mistake he made but provides no details. Jane Alison, who studied classics as an undergraduate and recently has translated some of Ovid's poetry, weaves a story of love, lust, ambition, desire, vengeance, and fate in a prose that is hypnotically beautiful.

Let me start off with two confessions: 1. Yeah, I bought this book in part because of the cover art---it's gorgeous! Wish I looked like that! and 2. I'm kind of scared to read historical fiction, particularly ancient history. That's because I'm this close to getting my PhD in ancient history, and most of the time when I read historical novels, I spend so much time looking for errors that I can't enjoy the story! However, with The Love Artist I was able to avoid this problem, partly because the author is a classicist and partly because the story she tells fills in the gaps in known history rather than retelling a story for which there is already plenty of evidence. The Roman poet Ovid, one of the most popular of his day, was exiled by the emperor Augustus for, he says "a poem and an error;" We don't know what the error was, although there are plenty of theories, many involving the emperor's granddaughter Julia, who was exiled around the same time. In The Love Artist, Alison provides a possible explanation, writing of Ovid's obsession with the witch Xenia whom he meets on holiday in Tomis on the Black Sea. Ovid, Xenia, and Julia all come alive as believable characters, if not always likable ones, and Alison's prose style is elegant and sparse. I was impressed that her writing was not overly expository or salacious, a problem I've had with historical novels in the past. The ending did feel a little rushed to me, and I'd be interested in hearing how this novel was received by someone who had closely studied the mystery of Ovid's exile and, contrarily, someone with little to no knowledge of ancient Roman history. I enjoyed it, and was caught up in Alison's fictional world.

It started off okay, but then it completely lost me.

This book reminds me of some of the books I read for the fiction writing class in Greece, perhaps because it is set in ancient circumstances, but maybe because it blends more of the fantastic into the fabric of the historical setting. Giving Xenia the ability to see into the future gives the story a more comprehensive chronological sense, which is interesting as a reader aware of the variety of distances between here and Rome. The decision to spend so much time in Ovid and Xenia’s consciousness was a bit exhausting as a reader, and I would have preferred more action and dialogue. But as an authorial choice it made sense with the true topic of the story, because though framed as the story of their relationship, this is just the story of their independent characters, fiercely separated despite their intense temporary collision.

The story just didn't move along perhaps because of the lack of dialogue. The characters seemed one dimensional and got to predictable. There are some beautiful bits of writing and wonderful descriptions though. Overall, it was just ok.

I read this book for a class on historical fiction. Why it was chosen is beyond me. There is almost no dialogue, the characters are underdeveloped at best, one-dimensional stereotypes at worst. The poet Ovid is presented as a creative fraud, which I'm presuming was because it was an easier choice than trying to imagine what it's like to think like a poet when you lack imagination yourself. The lack of dialogue? Maybe she doesn't know how to write it? I can't believe this is being used in class as an example of a good historical novel.

2003- The book starts off with the poet Ovid's being sent to exile in the first century A.D. Rome. Why could this extremely popular poet have done to cause the Emperor to send him away? The author spins a tale of a man looking for inspiration, who believes he has found it in a woman named Xenia, whom he meets on holiday by the Black Sea. Xenia returns to Rome with Ovid, becoming his muse and lover. When Ovid gains the Emperor's granddaughter as a patron for his newest (and he believes best work), lies and jealous thoughts starts to tear Ovid and Xenia apart. The writing captures you and takes you straight to the streets of Rome and into the lives of Ovid and Xenia. Yet, a couple of times I felt a bit lost, for the writing was a bit vague, and left things to the reader's imagination.