Metamorphoses
By Ovid
Translated by Stephanie McCarter
By Ovid
Translated by Stephanie McCarter
By Ovid
Translated by Stephanie McCarter
By Ovid
Translated by Stephanie McCarter
By Ovid
Translated by Stephanie McCarter
By Ovid
Translated by Stephanie McCarter
Part of Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition
Part of A Penguin Classics Hardcover
Part of A Penguin Classics Hardcover
Category: Poetry | Classic Nonfiction
Category: Poetry | Classic Nonfiction
Category: Poetry | Classic Nonfiction
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$22.00
Nov 14, 2023 | ISBN 9780143134237
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$38.00
Nov 08, 2022 | ISBN 9780525505990
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Nov 08, 2022 | ISBN 9780525506003
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$22.00
Nov 14, 2023 | ISBN 9780143134237
-
$38.00
Nov 08, 2022 | ISBN 9780525505990
-
Nov 08, 2022 | ISBN 9780525506003
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Praise
âThe true brilliance, that is, the true reading, the accessibility, of McCarterâs tapestry lies in her use of poetic form.(âŠ) Throughout, McCarter produces gorgeous basso continuo undertones juxtaposed against sharp and high-pitched rhymes. Such formal elements of the translation ultimately represent McCarterâs interpretation of Metamorphoses and the art of translation itselfâthat humble human craft that has the capacity to stand against and despite the will of gods, power, and time. McCarter has produced her own masterpiece that âJoveâs wrath cannot / destroy, nor flame, nor steel, nor gnawing time.â âMy name,â she writes, âcanât be erased.ââ
âAnna Deeny Morales, 2023 American Poets Prize citation for The Academy of American Poets
âThe best translation of a work of ancient literature that I read this year was Stephanie McCarterâs marvellous new translation of Ovidâs Metamorphoses, in fresh, readable, vivid iambic pentameter. McCarter captures Ovidâs wit and cleverness, making us laugh at the escapades of abusive, lust-crazed, arrogant gods and hapless, also lust-crazed and arrogant mortals. But she also brilliantly evokes Ovidâs more serious sides, including his attentiveness to power and the magical vivacity of the natural world. Her wonderful handling of the metrical poetic form is a fitting match for Ovidâs artful, fluent Latin verse.â
âEmily Wilson, The New Statesman
âMcCarter confronts the tricky issues associated with both the poet and his epic not only in her forthright introduction but in the translation itself, where, like an art restorer removing decades of browned varnish from an Old Master, she strips away a number of inaccuracies and embellishments that have accreted in translations over the decades and centuries, obscuring the sense of certain passages, particularly those portraying women and sexual violence⊠McCarterâs translation reproduces Ovidâs speed and clarity. Even better, she is alert to many of the sparkling verbal effects for which the poet was famous in his own time⊠If you didnât know she was writing about the concerns of someone who died twenty centuries ago, youâd think her subject was still alive.â
âDaniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker
âMcCarter adroitly captures Ovidâs glittering darkness. There is horror here but there is also so much wonder and delight, all conveyed in nimble, fresh language.â âKamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire
âThe Metamorphoses has it all: sex, death, love, violence, gods, mortals, monsters, nymphs, all the great forces, human and natural. With this vital new translation, Stephanie McCarter has not only updated Ovidâs epic of transformation for the modern ear and era â sheâs done something far more powerful. Sheâs paid rigorous attention to the language of the original and brought to us its ferocity, its sensuality, its beauty, its wit, showing us how we are changed, by time, by violence, by love, by stories, and especially by power. Here is Ovid, in McCarterâs masterful hands, refreshed, renewed, and pulsing with life.â
âNina MacLaughlin, author of Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung
âStephanie McCarterâs gorgeous verse translation of the Metamorphoses is ground-breaking not just in its refreshingly accessible approach to Ovidâs syntax and formal devices but for how she reframes the controversial subjects that have made Ovid, and Ovidian scholarship, so fraught for contemporary readers. McCarterâs translation understands that the Metamorphoses is a complex study of power and desire, and the dehumanizing ways that power asserts itself through and on a variety of bodies. McCarterâs deft, musical, and forthright translation returns much needed nuance to Ovidâs tropes of violence and change, demonstrating to a new generation of readers how our identities are always in flux, while reminding us all of the Metamorphosesâ enduring relevance.â
âPaisley Rekdal, author of Nightingale
âA graceful and fluid and deeply meaningful translation. Compared to the other translations of the Metamorphoses on which Iâve relied in the past, itâs as though this is of an entirely different book. The reader follows the lines with genuine emotion. And so do worlds open upââ
âAlexander Nemerov, Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities, Stanford University
âStephanie McCarterâs translation offers an attractive alternative to the finest versions to appear in recent decades, while the abundance of her introductory and explanatory material gives her work a clear advantage over those predecessors. As a vehicle for serious engagement with Ovidâs poem in English, McCarter has no rival.â â Richard Tarrant, Harvard University, Bryn Mawr Classical Review