The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter

The Satyricon is the world's first novel, a fragmentary masterpiece from first-century Rome that reads like it was written last Tuesday. Follow Encolpius and his beautiful young companion Giton as they stumble through the Roman Empire's southern provinces, bickering, seducing, getting robbed, and stumbling into increasingly absurd encounters. Petronius skewers the newly rich, the pretentious, and the powerful with a savage eye. The most famous set piece, Trimalchio's Feast, depicts a freed slave's dinner party so lavish and vulgar it makes modern reality TV look restrained. This is ancient literature that smells like wine and perfume, that bites. It's dirty, funny, and surprisingly tender. Walsh's translation captures the roll and snap of the original Latin. Whether you're drawn to the origins of the novel, the corrupt world of Nero's Rome, or simply a story that refuses to moralize, The Satyricon endures because it understands that humans have always been ridiculous, especially when trying to be respectable.