Filia Regis et Monstrum Horribile (Comprehensible Classics)

by Andrew Olimpi

Princess Psyche has everything going for wealth, fame, beauty, admirers . . . until Venus the goddess of beauty becomes jealous and sends a terrible Psyche is condemned to marry a horrible monster who lives in a mysterious palace on top of a mountain. Originally told by the Roman author Apuleius, this adaptation of the myth of Psyche is an exciting fantasy adventure, full of twists, secrets, and magic. The reader will also find many surprising connections to popular modern fairy tales, such as "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Beauty and the Beast." Written in Latin for first or second year Latin students, but also very useful for self-learners.

99 pages, Paperback

Published June 2, 2017

Reviews

[Ian]

Hic libellus historiam de Psyche refert, quae puella pulcherrima invidiam deorum passa est. Praecipue fortasse legendus una cum Till We Have Faces, libro C. S. Ludovoci qui eandem fabulam narrat. Praeter aliquot menda in textu hoc mihi admodum placet. Facile lectu.

[Addie]

Another great Latin reader by Olimpi. I really liked this book, not only because the story gave me a good idea of yet another traditional myth, but also because there was so much reading in this one! It was a slightly higher tiered reader with less pictures (although there are still plenty of those) and much more wording. It gave me a lot more practice reading the Latin language, which was perfect for my reading level.

[Kristen Fort]

The Cupid & Pysche story is presented in a short Latin story, broken up into several chapters. Each chapter is short enough for what my Latin colleague and I intend to do with it - listening activities - and the illustrations, which were done by the author himself, crack me up. :-)

[Bethany]

This was definitely an interesting story, and I felt I learnt more about the story of Cupid and Psyche. It got repetitive at times, with phrases cropping up over again, but not so much it distracted from the story or became annoying

[Jamie]

Strong story, minus 1 star for typos and infelicitous Latin.

[Dana Walker]

Level D (Intermediate Low)

[Daniel]

A fun book with some minor spelling and grammatical mistakes here and there.

[Jeffrey]

Liber facile et ampliare lectio artes tuus.

[Michael Arnold]

Good book!

[Lea]

I feel smarter even if the story is for a five years old child.

[Tyler Minn]

I definitely enjoyed the story, as the wording and the vocab weren't too complicated. Although it is a relatively hard book to read, the story made sense and the drama really felt similar to some type of mystical film. In general, I thought it was a pretty good book, and it was a joy to read.

[Colin]

A pretty readable, child-friendly version of the story of Cupid and Psyche as a Latin novella. This version has a number of apparent minor grammatical issues, but I enjoyed it . . .

[Kookie]

I hesitated between 2, 3 and 4 stars :
2 because of all the mistakes in this book (an example would be: allowed ❌, aloud ✅), 3 because it's not bad and 4 because of the story. Although he wasn't the one who came up with the story, I had fun reading it.

[Daniel Morgan]

Amo hanc novellam, quid multos cognatos et picturas utliles habet. Non exspectavi finem suum, et versionem huius auctoris me placet.