''Tales from Ovid'' is a poetical work written by the English poet

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

, published in 1997 by Faber and Faber. The book is a retelling of twenty-four tales from

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

''. It won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for 1997 and has been translated into several languages. It was one of his last published works, along with ''

Birthday Letters ''Birthday Letters'' is a 1998 poetry collection by English poet and children's writer Ted Hughes. Released only months before Hughes's death, the collection won multiple prestigious literary awards. This collection of eighty-eight poems is widel ...

''. Four of the tales had been previously published in 1995, in ''After Ovid, New Metamorphoses'', edited by M. Hofmann and J. Ladun. A stage adaptation was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the autumn of 1999 at the

Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon The Swan Theatre is a theatre belonging to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is built on to the side of the larger Royal Shakespeare Theatre, occupying the Victorian Gothic structure that formerly housed the Sh ...

. The

Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble The Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble (QSE) is an Australian theatre company. It is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and is the resident theatre company of the University of Queensland. Artistic directors * Rob Pensalfini (2001- ) * S ...

has also performed dramatisations of excerpts from Hughes' book, between 2006 and 2008. In 2009, Fiona Shaw performed one of these tales, Echo and Narcissus, in the context of a Prologue to Henry Purcell's opera ''

Dido and Aeneas ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was com ...

,'' with Les Arts Florissants, directed by French conductor and harpsichordist William Christie. Professor James Shapiro, writing for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', said of the book: "Hughes makes clear his admiration for the gift that Shakespeare shares with Ovid: insight into what a passion feels like to one possessed by it. Not just ordinary passion either, but human passion in extremis -- passion where it combusts, or levitates, or mutates into an experience of the supernatural. Hughes, too, is blessed with this gift, and this book brilliantly succeeds at bringing Ovid's passionate and disturbing stories to life."

References

1997 poetry books Poetry by Ted Hughes Costa Book Award-winning works Translations into English Faber and Faber books Poetry based on Metamorphoses {{UK-poem-stub