First published in 1978, An Imaginary Life is David Malouf’s second novel, his first to gain notable international recognition, and, until the publication of Remembering Babylon in 1993, his most discussed work among academic critics. It offers a fictionalized account of the Roman poet Ovid’s late-life exile in an outland of the Augustan empire, a Getae settlement called Tomis, on the western shore of the Black Sea. In the first of five narrative movements, Ovid comes to grips with his exile, its causes and consequences, and gradually moves out of his desolate alienation toward a sense of meaningful connection with the Getae people and their world. The second movement recounts Ovid’s first sighting, during a …
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Citation: Randall, Don. "An Imaginary Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 September 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6623, accessed 25 November 2024.]
