A book that I would call a literary artefact rather than a novel, other readers have expanded on this. One key word can give the plot away: debauchery. The edition I read was published by Norilana Classics, it is presented as the ‘complete and unexpurgated translation by W.C. Firebaugh in which are incorporated the forgeries of Nodot and Marchena and the readings introduced into the text by De Salas.’ The forgeries are added to the text and in order to differentiate the forgeries from the original, there are three codes: in parenthesis () we find the forgeries of Nodot, Marchena’s forgeries are written in brackets {} and Salas’s additions are inserted in italics.

Interestingly, the section I enjoyed the most was not Petronius’s loosely called novel, but the notes written by Marchena, which first appeared in 1800 and have now been published for the first time by Norilana Classics. Marchena’s introduction is dedicated to The Army of the Rhine and it is followed by six chapters discussing Soldiers in love, Courtesans, Greek love, Pollution, Virginity, and Pandars.

As a whole The Satyricon is a rather fragmented, crude, controversial yet well written book, which needs to be read taking into consideration the historical and social context in which the narrated ‘adventures’ take place. I suspect that most readers who are not accustomed to this type of literature will not enjoy this book, this is a book to be appreciated by a niche audience