Written in a witty and engaging style, Columbia University Professor of Latin Language and Literature Gareth Williams’ book “On Ovid's Metamorphoses” offers a fresh interpretation of Ovid's classic poetic work.

Drawing on his extensive experience teaching the poem, Williams provides a lively and accessible reading accompaniment that highlights Metamorphoses' relevance to contemporary audiences.

Williams suggests that Ovid’s Metamorphoses remains relevant for numerous reasons:
1. Timeless Themes: The poem explores universal topics such as love, power, transformation, and identity.
2. Cultural Influence: Metamorphoses has profoundly influenced Western art and literature throughout the ages.
3. Narrative Brilliance: Ovid’s storytelling is noted for its wit, rhetorical brilliance, vivid descriptions, and imagery.
4. Exploration of Change: The poem’s central theme of transformation and metamorphosis speaks to the continuous fluctuation in human life and the world in which we live. The only constant is change.
5. Modern Resonance: Over years, Metamorphoses continues to grow in popularity.

Although over two thousand years old and counting, Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a timeless treasure, and Professor William’s interpretive handbook is a must-have resource.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Gareth Williams, and Publisher Columbia University Press for this advanced reader copy (ARC) for review.

This is more of a reading aid or companion book for Ovid's Metamorphoses than a cheat sheet to this interesting but long work. It offers very interesting insight to some of the prevalent themes in the stories. I particularly found it interesting to read about some possible implied meanings that one only gets by reading this in the original language and that just doesn't usually get translated. There is definitely something to be said about losing something in translation but this will have to be the best I can do because I am not planning on learning Latin any time soon.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

This uis a well-written and well-researched deep dive into Ovid's Metamorphoses. I think Gareth Williams did an excellent job of curating something that a novice to ancient literature to follow. This was not too difficult of a read, but still offered an academic challenge. This was a delightful experience. I feel better prepared to read Ovid's Metamorphosis on my own now.

I enjoyed the tone of this book--it felt like taking a class with this professor. And like any academic class, some of the author's opinions can't really be confirmed. Of course we can't really know what Ovid was thinking and intending for the Metamorphoses. He was a trickster and iconoclast. His exile probably did affect his writing--how could it not? Efforts at understanding the stories of the Metamorphoses often take our attention away from Ovid himself, but this book is a welcome invitation to reconnect with him as well as his masterpiece.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Call me soft-hearted, but until now there was only one story in Ovid's Metamorphoses that really charmed me: that of Philemon and Baucis, the elderly couple who unknowingly receive the gods Zeus and Hermes (in disguise) in their shabby abode, and are generously thanked for their endless hospitality, by allowing them to live on after their death as intertwined oak and linden (I am a sentimental sucker, indeed). For the rest I found the Metamorphoses far too whimsical and chaotic, an accumulation of improbable stories with usually sad endings. In his relatively short book Gareth David Williams confirms my verdict: The Metamorphoses are indeed whimsical, chaotic and improbable, but that, according to him, is precisely their strength. “Here is a poem that ceaselessly focuses on the changefulness of human experience, on the unpredictability of shifting circumstances as our fortunes ebb and flow in life, and on the transformations encoded in our existence as we grow older, modify our viewpoints, adapt to changing times, or evolve out of our former selves.” Williams also reveals that there is indeed a system in Ovid's chaotic stories, and that the poet's personal tragedy (his exile by Emperor Augustus) has also left an important mark on the work. The author, professor of Latin language and literature at Columbia University, goes into great detail, constantly makes connections, and points out the masterful use of registers and ‘double entendres’. He does this so intensively that the reading of this little book comes across as overwhelming and chaotic as The Metamorphoses themselves. So, to be honest, this study requires some perseverance, but at the same time, it is rewarding. I am sure that the next time I sink my teeth into the Metamorphoses, I will look at them with very different eyes.

Stopped reading. The ARC is a big imposition on any reader let alone a review - the formatting is totally jumbled and weird 1 and 0 are steadily in the middle of the text (perhaps this is a programming handbook disguised as an essay on Ovid - just a thought).
I used the Kindle version and was not able to make sense without a really huge effort.