Written towards the end of the second century AD, The Golden Ass, tells of the many adventures of a young man whose fasination with witchcraft leads to his transformation into a donkey. The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner - encountering a desperate gang of robbers and being forced to perform lewd 'human' tricks on stage - until the goddess Isis finally breaks the spell and Lucius is initiated into her cult. Apuleius' story has inspired generations of writers such as Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Keats with its combination of allegory, satire, bawdiness and sheer exuberance, and remains the most continuously and accessibly amusing book to have survived from Classical antiquity.<BR>E. J. Kenney's translation retains the humorous, extravagant style of the original. In his introduction, he examines the language and structure of the story, and its themes of transformation and spiritual illumination. This edition also includes suggestions for further reading, maps, notes and an index.