Following in the footsteps of accounts of ancient, medieval and Renaissance receptions of Apuleius, such as Gély’s L’Invention d’un mythe (2006) or Gaisser’s Fortunes of Apuleius’ Golden Ass (2008), this volume explores the literary fortunes of the Apuleian story of Cupid and Psyche from the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. The authors convincingly highlight the importance of this story in the definition of modern European literary genres and forms, through a selection of meaningful case studies. Though some of these are well known, the volume offers a precious overview of the ongoing development of literary values that in turn reshaped and revived interest in this story.

The volume was written as part of a broader research programme led by the authors on the European reception of Apuleius’ story from 1600 to today. An edited collection of twenty-two studies, covering a wider array of literary and other artistic productions, from wallpaper to film, appeared in 2020. Here, although the quantitative aspects of the transmission of classical texts in modern Europe (mostly northwestern Europe) are not neglected, H. & M. have chosen to concentrate on qualitative aspects, defined by literary criteria, with the help of sociology and cultural studies. The methodological approach focuses on two traits: (1) the transformative literary treatment of particular episodes from the story in given historical and discursive contexts; (2) modern reconfigurations of classical tradition, as the material transmission of texts through editions and translations is associated with the succession of influential receptions. After a brief introduction to the story and its textual and interpretative history before 1650, the volume focuses on just three national contexts, presented in geographical and chronological order. The selection thus brings out a few decisive European literary receptions, in early modern France and Germany, before insisting on long-term evolution in the specific case of Britain.

Hence the choice, in the first chapter, of the seminal context of France from 1650 to 1815, where the story of Cupid and Psyche was favoured by Louis XIV’s taste, while artists such as La Fontaine, Molière or major women authors such as Leprince de Beaumont emancipated (relatively speaking) the story from Christian allegorical readings; they also separated it from its textual context within the story of the Metamorphoses, explicitly dismissing the paradigm of translation or classical fidelity in favour of free adaptation to modern sensibility, and used it to make an active contribution to new aesthetic forms such as opera and literary fairy-tales. The story of Cupid and Psyche featured significantly in the Querelle des anciens et des modernes, and the preeminence given to the female protagonist, in a context where women’s education and literary authority were widely debated, was also important. The huge influence of these French productions in Europe is measured through translations and adaptations, and then exemplified in the second chapter on the particular case of Germany between 1750 and 1850. While the production of literary tales was influenced by both Apuleius and the French tradition (e.g. in Wieland’s works), H. & M. insist on the specific alliance of literature and erudition in this context. The fashionable genre of literary tales was partly suspected of obscuring authentic traditions, later labelled ‘folklore’, that needed to be studied with scientific methods. This connection was sustained through institutions and networks of knowledge that gave birth to elaborate discussions of the philosophical dimension of the story and orientated the evolution of literary fiction between the genres of epics, fairy tales and novels, as well as stage productions. Of particular interest in this very rich chapter are the sections regarding fascination for the Greek dimension of the story — in a period preceding a revived interest in the Latin-African style of Apuleius in the context of French colonial expansion.

As the proportion of chapters devoted to the United Kingdom indicates, the study offers the greatest detail on this topic. A vast number of productions is traced to this context, starting from Romantic circles, greatly influenced by intellectual and literary exchanges with Germany and France, before new explorations in the major literary genres of the Victorian period. While the poetic Romantic reception of the story is particularly rich, one may wonder if its reception in nineteenth-century English novels reveals anything more than a shared cultural knowledge. A more thematic, gender-based analysis might have led to other conclusions. The next chapter considers the 1885–1905 ‘Decadence’ period, with such figures as Walter Pater and Andrew Lang, in a wider European context of interest in late Latin authors, as well as a strong concern for symbolism and anthropological enquiries. A detailed account of Couperus’ Dutch renderings, in addition to a few well-known French examples, confirms the comparative scope of this section, albeit centred on English reception. The connection with fairy tales and the rise of children’s literature is also investigated. The last chapter encompasses a multi-generic reception of the story since 1900. As the ‘Epilogue’ suggests, the complex and multicultural reception of the story of Cupid and Psyche offers a specific point of observation that allows for new and stimulating views on classical tradition through modernity to the present day, casting a healthy light on women writers.