Oxford Readings in the Roman Novel

This anthology of articles on the Roman novels of Petronuis and Apuleiusmakes available some of the most useful and important articles published inGerman and Italian as well as English over the last thirty years. Theintroduction, by the editor, provides a general assessment of all scholarly workwritten about the texts from the 1900s to the 1990s, setting the papers usefullyin context.The articles in this collection which concern the work of Petronius include ageneral interpretation of a fragmentary and problematic text, exploration ofnarrative technique, relation to Menippean satire and recently discovered Greeknovel papyri, and realism. On Apuleius, the collection includes pieces onnarrative and ideological unity, relation to religion and Platonism,exploration of narrative technique, relation to epic and to the Greek assstories, to folk-tale, and historical realism.A reflection of the period of rapid expansion of scholarly interest in the areaof the ancient novel this book combines the best of current internationalscholarly interpretation.