212 pages

English language

Published Dec. 20, 1999 by Oxford University Press.

ISBN:
978-0-19-283952-7
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
42394963

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (6 reviews)

An incomplete Roman novel believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius Arbiter. What remains of the novel is a picaresque story concerning the narrator’s battle to keep his lover, a handsome sixteen year old boy, away from his many rivals.

46 editions

reviewed The Satyricon by Petronius Arbiter (Oxford world's classics)

Review of 'The Satyricon' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The book is so chewed up that it's difficult to pin it down.  Mayhap it's a satire (in the modern sense of the word).  But unfortunately (or rather fortunately) we're so far removed from Nero's Rome that we have no knowledge of what's being parodied and so don't see the humor.  Was Trimalchio supposed to be a parody of Nero himself?  That would be sailing mighty close to the wind.

But perhaps the satire is timeless.  For we all have seen far too much of people very like Trimalchio.

Maybe it's a moral tale, telling us to avoid ostentation and to not think about sex every minute of the day.  

avatar for Stratski

rated it

3 stars
avatar for Nafiza

rated it

4 stars
avatar for TimMason

rated it

4 stars
avatar for rufzerg666

rated it

3 stars

Subjects

  • Satire, Latin -- Translations into English
  • Rome -- Fiction