Though Ovid has been dead for more than 2,000 years and left no personal records—not even the name of his mother—his poetry endures. Here the author of Her Husband: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes and the National Book Award nominee Anne Sexton uses close readings of Ovid's poetry and letters from exile to take an extraordinary look at the conditions and customs to which he was exposed as a young Roman, arriving at an acute interpretation of his family and personal life. Incomplete at the time of Diane Middlebrook's death in 2007, the book is nonetheless self-contained, and it is supplemented here by 80 pages of translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Amores, and Tristia.

"Middlebrook's well-researched work provides insights into the diverse elements of Roman life, from horses to education, and even divorce. But Middlebrook is most persuasive when she interprets how Ovid came to write his masterpieces."—Publishers Weekly