This book is a signed limited edition of "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius, translated by Jack Lindsay and illustrated by Percival Goodman, published in New York by the Limited Editions Club in 1932, with gilt lettering on the spine, ivory-colored cloth, Greek geometric-patterned endpapers, a half-title and illustrated title page, an eleven-page Introduction (iii - xiii), a Contents page, a one-page Preface, 386 pages of text, a six-page section of Notes, a limitation page at the rear which reads "This new translation of The Golden Ass by Jack Lindsay is printed in an edition of fifteen hundred copies for the members of The Limited Editions Club by John S. Fass at the Harbor Press in New York the illustrations being by Percival Goodman who here signs his name: [Goodman signed his name here in red ink] this is copy number 745", so the book is signed by the illustrator, there's a total of 392 pages in the book, and the top edge is gilt. The book is illustrated throughout, and it comes in a golden-colored slipcase. Apuleius, also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (ca. 124 - after 170 A.D.) was a prose writer and philosopher who studied rhetoric. He was born in the Roman province of Numidia, in modern-day Algeria, and studied Plato in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions (and fortune) of a wealthy widow. He spoke with passion in his own defense and then published it in writing before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near modern Tripoli, in Libya. This is known as the Apologia. His most famous work is his bawdy picaresque novel the Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass, the book here. It is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It tells the adventures of its protagonist, Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a donkey. Lucius goes through various adventures before he is turned back into a human being by the goddess Isis. It sounds like a lot of modern movies or cartoons where a human character is turned into a speaking animal and returns to human form after surviving hair-raising adventures. Percival Goodman (1904 - 1989) was an architect, planner and artist who was one of the nation's leading designers of synagogues. Born in New York, and after receiving the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects Paris Prize, he enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He was an expert on city planning and a professor of architecture at Columbia University, and he illustrated the Golden Ass of Apuleius in 1932. He had no previous religious background when he embarked on his career as a designer of synagogues; he said that the atrocities of World War II together with his readings of Martin Buber gave him the need for a concrete expression of kinship with Judaism, describing himself as "an agnostic who was converted by Hitler." The book is 8vo and measures 10 3/8 x 6 1/2 in. wide, with a tight binding and clean pages, text, and illustrations. There is light toning on the spine and faint scuffs on the back cover, and the slipcase has wear at the corners and along the edges. The book is still attractive, and only fifteen hundred copies of this book were ever published by the Limited Editions Club. #91 #1676