The Art of Love
  • Published: 2 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099518822
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $17.99

The Art of Love

Formats & editions
Paperback
2 Apr 2012
Paperback
15 Oct 2002
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'Any man who shows, with such poetic readability, that what is happening between the sexes today was happening two thousand years ago - and that, therefore, the beating out of one's guilt-ridden, female brains is something of a waste of time - has to be a hero' - Independent

The perfect gift for Valentine’s Day

TRANSLATED BY TOM PAYNE AND INTRODUCED BY HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON

The Art of Love may have been written in the days of gladiators and emperors, but Ovid remains the smartest teacher on the subject of love in all of history, and his advice is enduringly useful and entertaining. Between these covers you'll find all you need to know about where to meet a new beau, how to handle illicit affairs and how to maintain your allure. This edition also contains the companion volume The Cure for Love - in case things don't work out.
  • Published: 2 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099518822
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $17.99
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About the author

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was born in Italy on 20 March 43 BC. He was educated in Rome and worked as a public official before taking up poetry full-time. His earliest surviving work is the collection of love poems called the Amores, which was followed by the Heroides. The Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) and the Remedia Amoris (The Cure for Love) were probably written between 2 BC and 2 AD. These were followed by his two epic poems the Fasti and the Metamorphoses. In 8 AD Ovid fell out of favour with the Emperor Augustus due to a 'carmen et error' ('a poem and a mistake') and was banished to what is now Romania. While in exile he wrote Tristia, Ibis and the Epistulae ex Ponto which consists of letters appealing for help in his efforts to be recalled to Rome. Ovid died in exile in 18 AD.

Ovid (43BC-18AD) was born at Sulmo (Sulmona) in central Italy. Coming from a wealthy Roman family and seemingly destined for a career in politics, he held minor official posts before leaving public service to write, becoming the most distinguished poet of his time. His works, all published in Penguin Classics, include Amores, a collection of short love poems; Heroides, verse-letters written by mythological heroines to their lovers; Ars Amatoria, a satirical handbook on love; and Metamorphoses, his epic work that has inspired countless writers and artists through the ages.

Praise for The Art of Love

His wit, fluency and erotic treatises made him one of the most influential writers of ancient times

Independent

Rome's wittiest poet

Independent on Sunday

This sums Ovid up: Cerebral and sensual; but wit first

Ruth Padel

Much of Ovid's advice would not go amiss today

Guardian

With its jaunty, cunning and infernally clever rhyming couplets, Tom Payne's new translation is an utter treat from first to last...a sparkling foreword by Hephzibah Anderson...this effervescent Art of Love will be a lasting joy.

Independent

With its jaunty, cunning and infernally clever rhyming couplets, Tom Payne's new translation is an utter treat... Payne's commentary, and a sparkling foreword by Hephzibah Anderson, make the clear the deep gulf that separates his world from ours. Nonetheless, this effervescent Art of Love will be a lasting joy... On Valentine's, and indeed every other day, legalistic lovers would do well to mark his words

Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Pious and bawdy by turns, advocating high-mindedness, Ovid keeps readers guessing as to his true opinions. Payne's new translations steers a generally steady course between cheekiness and gravitas, while his footnotes - which reference Delia Smith, Joni Mitchell and Woody Allen - add an eccentric gloss.

Adrian Turpin, Financial Times

Payne's notes are excellent... commendably lively in the spirit of Ovid

Bernard O'Donoghue, Times Literary Supplement