This widely acclaimed book offers an introduction to the ancient novel and presents the latest research findings in the field. For this English translation, Professor Holzberg has substantially updated and expanded the German edition of 1986.
Niklas Holzberg considers the ancient novel as encompassing idealistic and comic realistic narratives with the central themes of love and adventure. He develops his definition of the genre and offers explanations for why this literary form was so popular during the Hellenistic period. He goes on to examine the individual texts in chronological order, providing a summary of the contents of each, relevant background information and interpretative pointers.

The Roman poet Ovid is enjoying a renaissance. Though relegated to the margins in the Romantic period, since the mid-1980s he has become popular again, not only with classicists and other lovers of ancient poetry, but also with poets and prose writers. He himself is the protagonist of a number of recent novels and stories, including Jane Alison's The Love Artist, Derek Mahon's Ovid in Tomis, and David Malouf's An Imaginary Life. Ovid's greatest work, the Metamorphoses, has inspired authors such as Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes to publish retellings of certain of his stories of transformation.

The distinguished classicist Niklas Holzberg offers a highly readable, concise yet comprehensive overview of all of Ovid's varied works, giving each stage of Ovid's career its due and allowing no text to be diminished by serving as a prelude or epilogue to others. In addition, Holzberg's own insightful, frequently witty observations infuse the book, resulting in a rounded vision of a storyteller Holzberg finds to be distinctly modern.

Schon von Kaiser Augustus als Aufforderung zur Unsittlichkeit missverstanden, wurde Ovids "Liebeskunst" bis weit ins 20. Jahrhundert hinein als frivoler Scherz gedeutet und meist dementsprechend ubersetzt. Niklas Holzbergs schlichte Wiedergabe des Originals vermeidet die pluschige Stammtischerotik der alten Ubersetzungen."