The Metamorphosis of Ovid: From Chaucer to Ted Hughes

Ovid's "Metamorphoses" is one of the cornerstones of Western culture, the principal source for all the most famous myths of Greece and Rome, and a continuing inspiration for poets, composers and painters alike. This, inclusive account of this hugely important poem's influence on English literature, charts the reception of the poem over the course of six centuries from Chaucer's enigmatic "House of Fame" to Ted Hughes' "Tales from Ovid." As well as offering reassessments of works whose debt to Ovid has long been recognised, such as "The Tempest" and "Paradise Lost," Sarah Brown shows that Ovidianism is an even more complex and pervasive phenomenon in English literature than has previously been recognised, and may be found in the most unexpected places.