The Satyricon — Volume 04: Escape by Sea

The Satyricon is the oldest novel in existence that wasn't purely religious or philosophical, and it has no interest in being respectable. Written during Nero's reign, it follows the scholar Encolpius and his beautiful young companion Giton as they drift through the Roman Empire's southern provinces, surviving on their wits, their charm, and sheer cheek. This volume finds them taking to sea, fleeing consequences that remain deliciously vague, pursued by enemies both spurned and unknown. They encounter Tryphaena, a woman of dangerous allure, and Lycas, a ship captain whose motives are murky at best. What follows is a romp through storms, seductions, and the absurd theater of human desire, rendered in prose that's simultaneously elegant and filthy. Petronius invented the picaresque novel, but more importantly, he invented a voice: cynical, precise, and utterly uninterested in moralizing. Fourteen centuries before Don Quixote, he understood that the road reveals character, and that character is usually ridiculous.