Fratantuono has provided a learned guide to the fragmentary labyrinth of Petronius’s Satyrica. First-time readers will benefit greatly from this book. Those more familiar with the novel will be encouraged to reconsider some of their assumptions.

Christopher Star, Middlebury College

Dr. Fratantuono serves up a reading of Petronius’ Satyricon seasoned to its author’s own taste: a fine blend of erudition, wit, and intelligent interpretation. Fratantuono’s clear explications, closely following the structure of the text, will engage both new and experienced readers. Especially useful for the former, this book immediately elucidates the main questions of authorial identity, genre, theme, and style; then offers a consistently piquant section-by-section interpretive guide. With an artful eye for detail and big-picture together, Fratantuono ushers readers through the Satyricon’s twisty narrative, textual problems, and long history of scholarship, demonstrating the political and literary significance of this text in its own era and ours. Fratantuono’s own narrative voice, direct yet distinctly scampish, delighting in trope, nuance, and intertextual richesse, is a fitting companion to the text it elaborates. Through his book, readers will discover or re-discover Petronius as both critic of, and antidote to, an age unaware of the difference between reality and fiction.

Holly Haynes, The College of New Jersey