The Art of Love (Illustrated Version)

Author: (Ancient Rome) Ovid, translated by Dai Wangshu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Love as an Art is a three-volume work: the first volume How to Win Love, the second volume How to Keep Love, and the third volume A Friend to Women. The first two volumes provide guidance to young men and women on how to handle love issues based on sociological and psychological foundations. The third volume is specifically for women, advocating for their social and family status, praising their intelligence and talent as no less than that of men, and encouraging women to be more proactive in their love lives. These views were, in fact, very democratic and progressive at the time. However, it was not because of the book's many descriptions of lust and its celebration of the pleasures of debauchery that these three volumes, which were originally serious and pure, would be considered immoral or obscene. Love as an Art is a humorous educational poem with very sensual language and content, but it demonstrates the author's profound knowledge and meticulous scholarship on the subject.