I read this book as part of the required reading for the Coursera.org course "Plagues, Witches and War." If it had not been for this course, I would never have read this book.
It is a likeable story. I had some difficulty understanding the many references the author made to the Roman and Greek writers, philosophers, etc., as I have not greatly studied this historical period. I enjoyed the plot twists, and was surprised by the ending.

A beautifully written novel that creates a plausible reason for Ovid's banishment. The novel portrays Ovid as a writer who finds his inspiration and raw material in the women in his life. He is also very obsessed with being remembered by history. Zenia's ability to see the future juxtaposed with the historical past is quite effective.

I read this for the Coursera class "Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction." The story tries to solve the riddle of why Ovid, the most popular poet of his day, was banished by Augustus. Before his Metamorphoses was published, Ovid travels and encounters a women who becomes his muse and brings her back to Rome. Along with this storyline is another of Augustus' granddaughter who is meant to provide a blood heir to the Roman Empire.
I'll start off with what I liked about the book. I really do like mythology and so all the references to Greek and Roman myths were appealing to me. The premise of the story was also interesting and the characters felt like real people. Ovid's flaw was authentic. Though I like descriptive writing, I sometimes lost my way in this one. Maybe I should have read with less distractions around. I had trouble staying focused and found myself just closing the book at the end of chapters. I do think that this could deserve a re-read at a later date.

I picked this book up so long ago I can't remember when it was. I read a few chapters maybe, but stopped for a reason I can't remember. I think it even happened twice. I may pick it up again in the future, but it's not in my top 5 list.

This is the imagined story of the writing of Ovid's lost play Medea, but also a vivid evocation of the magical themes and characters of his preserved works, in particular the Metamorphoses.

Ovid and Xenia can never understand each other because they belong to antithetical worlds: the former, living the real pressures of a real artist including state censorship, anxiety about public reception and the desire to live forever; the latter, living a mythological existence where divination, healing and cursing are as normal as eating and drinking.

Their relationship is not founded on love but on mutual dependence for selfish motives. Ovid wants Xenia because she represents his own creations past and future; Xenia wants Ovid because he will make her immortal. The latter dependency fails when Xenia realises that she will not be immortalised as the object of the poet's pure love, but as a witch who kills her own children.

Ovid obtains what he asked for but not what he needed. His works render him immortal but he is banished from Rome, away from his adoring audience, away from his lover and his children.

I read this book as part of a historical narrative fiction class I took on Coursera. Unfortunately, the book arrived later than the segment of the class so my rating may be biased on knowing exactly what would happen before I read it.

I read this book for the Coursera course "Plagues, Witches, and War, The Worlds of Historical Fiction." I generally enjoy historical fiction and consider myself a historian. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if I knew more about Ovid, his writing and Imperial Rome. It was fine...included some magical realism. However, I admit I was lost for a good amount of the story.

This is an intense, mysterious and sexy escape to Augustan Rome with an historical fiction approach about Ovid's exile and what happened to his unfinished play "Medea". It was a page-turner, and the characters spring to life. The author had said in an interview that she did not want the book to feel "sepia toned" because it is set in antiquity -- and she definitely succeeds developing a vibrant and sensual portrayal of ancient Rome. Word of advice - readers who may have forgotten the Greek and Roman myths may find themselves often referencing Wikipedia for a brief refresher about the numerous literary references, but I did not find that too cumbersome. This was Ms. Alison's first novel (written in 2001), and I look forward to reading some of her other works, particularly her memoir The Sisters Antipodes.

Probably a 2.5 star rating, really.

I gotta say, I started Metamorphoses by Ovid over the summer and put it down, but if I ever manage to pick it back up again, I am definitely going to see him in a different light. She did manage to find those buttons and push!

The writing was beautiful, but I also got a whiff of trying too hard, which is always pretty fatal. It slowed down the narrative and seemed to be trying to mask some of the deficiencies of the rest of the novel.

One of my main issues with the novel was the repetitious nature of it, how many times am I going to hear about her gazing at him, him gazing at her? I thought maybe he should see somebody about those sweaty wrists of his!

The jump from loving couple to jealous and suspicious lovers was a little too steep for me as well. Really, their first time in public he goes off with another woman? His logic seemed completely screwed up, i.e. not believable, for such a smart guy, and his end goal was kind of ridiculous.

Julia seemed an add-on as well. Barely mentioned at first and then plays a pivotal role? Eh, didn't believe it, and didn't really believe her story, as her backstory was not enough to show her motivations.

It would definitely be a cool project to go through and find all the myths that she interspersed throughout and analyze the myth that it becomes, out of the truth of the story.

A hard story to follow. Lots of poetry. Mystical writing surrounds the plot. One can get lost in all the metaphors, even though they are very clever.


"Yes, she drew near.....Manipulate nature, find the essence of life!-the alchemical axiom blazed across her chart. Already she could undo almost any sickness, turn black antimony into silver, transform a sullen boy into a lover. She knew what tricks lay in the tissues of plants, what colors were hidden in metals-sleepiness in hellebore, the craving for love in henbane, blue in iron, bright yellow in lead, vermillion in mercury. And some-where-finer than earth, water, air, and fire yet hovering inside all four, perhaps in color or light itself-was the quinta-essentia, the substance of life." (pg.19)


"Control every subtle thing, penetrate every solid." (pg.175)

I loved this luscious imagining of why Ovid was banished by Augustus from Rome and why only 2 lines of what was said to have been his greatest work, Medea, remain. It is an intense, compelling and poetic tale that makes Augustus' Rome and the Georgian outposts of the empire alive and vibrant on the page.
I loathed Ovid when aged 15 doing my Latin O Level, but reading this has made me want to read him again - alas it will have to be in translation!
Jane Alison writes with a lyrical touch and a superb sense of growing menace as the passion between Ovid and his lover Xenia is turned by the poet into the raw material for what he intends to be his magnum opus and the terrible means of his immortality as a writer.

Now to read Ovid. It probably won't be as easy to read as this novel. In her acknowledgements she says she didn't exactly follow his life, took liberties. I wonder what they were. This book spawns more reading, Ovid, Horace, and histories.