The Metamorphoses of Apuleius is a sophisticated literary creation, complex and often perplexing. It continues to elicit widely varying critical comment about both its substance and its style. The prologue to Metamorphoses ends with an exhortation and a promise Lector intende; laetaberis (pay attention, reader; you'll be glad). This monograph, Lusus iste: Apuleius' Metamorphoses, continues the critical game in which Apuleuis invites us to be co-players. It presents further observations of a reader who finds delight in the verbal entertainment, lusus, which Apuleius provides, not simply in the story he tells but also in its complex design and verbal texture.

"This review can only hope to offer a small sampling of the vast material of this book. Apuleian scholars will be duly grateful to K. for her many diligent collections of linguistic and thematic material from the novel, and will be either convinced or unconvinced in each case by her associative method of interpretation... K.'s presentation of the Met. as a work of conscious artistry and complex literary texture is surely an appropriate approach to Apuleius in the twenty-first century, and no serious student of the Metamorphoses will fail to learn something from the sturdily independent interpretations presented in this book." - International Journal Of The Classical Tradition