This book reminds me of some of the books I read for the fiction writing class in Greece, perhaps because it is set in ancient circumstances, but maybe because it blends more of the fantastic into the fabric of the historical setting. Giving Xenia the ability to see into the future gives the story a more comprehensive chronological sense, which is interesting as a reader aware of the variety of distances between here and Rome. The decision to spend so much time in Ovid and Xenia’s consciousness was a bit exhausting as a reader, and I would have preferred more action and dialogue. But as an authorial choice it made sense with the true topic of the story, because though framed as the story of their relationship, this is just the story of their independent characters, fiercely separated despite their intense temporary collision. ( )

Very interesting. Although I must say that I now have more questions instead of less about Ovid and the Augustan Roman period. Also, I'm not sure what the stream of consciousness style did for this book. I kept expecting Virginia Woolf to jump in with her [all important] brackets. Somehow [imagine this] that took me out of the classical Roman feeling that the author so craftily evoked. Still, it was very well written and I think my struggles were through my own limitations. ( )

Ovid, the Roman poet, was exiled to Tomis on the Black Sea for what he says in his "Tristia": Carmen et error [A poem and a mistake]. From this ambiguity, scholars and historians through the years have tried to puzzle out why he was exiled. Alison presents us with her speculation, giving us a lush, sensuous tale of Ovid and a mysterious "witch", Xenia, he meets on vacation on the Black Sea [a more salubrious part than his final home]. They fall in love and he takes her to Rome. He begins writing a tragedy of Medea with her as muse and model for the priestess. Xenia feels he has betrayed her with another woman. Jealous of his patroness, Julia, of the imperial family, she exacts a horrible vengeance.

I could SEE all scenes before me vividly, despite the author's sometimes purple prose. Besides the jealousy and betrayal, a main theme is the permanence of art and the artist [in this case Ovid.] Will he always be remembered, he keeps asking her. The novel took awhile to pick up steam, but finally rolled on swiftly to its inexorable conclusion. This novel is the expression of the inner life of its characters.

Recommended. On rereading in November 2016, I lowered my rating to 3***. ( )

An interesting historical novel speculating on why Ovid was banished from Rome at the height of his fame. However I found it hard to read, the author getting carried away with her own elaborate prose and failing to just tell us what was actually happening in the story. ( )

Why was Ovid, the most popular writer of his era, banished to the remote town of Tomis in the Black Sea from the seat of the Empire's power, Rome, and the side of his patron, Augustus?

Why are merely two lines of Medea, widely touted as his most ardent and accomplished work, the only surviving remnant of this play?

Between the historical facts of Ovid’s life, his admission that a poem and a mistake were the pillars of his ruin, and these tantalising enigmas, Jane Alison has wrought a hauntingly romantic drama of psychological manipulation and sensual intrigue.

Holidaying in the Black Sea on the outskirts of the Roman Empire and avoiding the potential displeasure of Augustus, Ovid chances upon an almost unearthly woman who epitomises the fantastical elements of his about-to-be published Metamorphoses. A delectable, desirable, alluring combination of mystic and witch, Xenia seems myth translated into life. Ovid is enchanted, obsessed, almost as a virgin youth experiencing his first love, he is brimming with inspiration: Xenia will be the muse for his pièce de résistance. But this time, he renders his subject seductively dark and twisted.

When autumn arrives, Ovid tempts Xenia from her home on the coast of the Black Sea to Rome with the promise of immortality only an artist can bequeath. The ineluctable noose of ambition lures Ovid and he enters a Faustian contract, deceiving his muse and hurling them both towards a retribution he never imagined. As Ovid and Xenia become entangled in his art-inspiring-life conspiracy and the schemes of his patrons, so the reader is ensnared in this chilling yet enthralling re-telling of the events leading to Ovid’s banishment.

The Love Artist is an exotic, brilliant and utterly compelling meditation on love, genius, and the artist's (and his or her muse) unswerving quest for immortality. Ms Alison’s prose is as bewitching as Xenia is described, as sensual and steamy as Ovid’s The Art of Love, and as flawlessly complex and evocative of Ancient Rome as any cinematic poem scribed by the classical poets.

Ms Alison foreshadows the events that will eventually engulf Ovid by opening her story with the journey of his exile to Tomis, but the story proper commences in the light and heat and smells of summer and the joy of the first stirrings of unexpected, overwhelming, infatuation. As the seasons fade into winter, so the menace of Ovid's plotting and the machinations of shadowy puppeteers shroud the protagonists until each is propelled along a path that can only result in a terrifying, profoundly disturbing conclusion.

Readers of lusciously written character-driven prose, who enjoy fictional history of the ancient world, with breath-taking twists of plot and consequence, will not be disappointed with [b:The Love-Artist|2889|The Love-Artist|Jane Alison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312006175s/2889.jpg|6793]. ( )