An Imaginary Life

An Imaginary Life is the 1978 historical-fiction novella written by Australian author David Malouf. Set in the outskirts of Rome in the first century A.D., the story tells of the Roman poet Ovid, and how his sudden exile to a land of barbarians helped to evolve his view of nature, civilized life, and the inextricable relationship between place and perspective. Thematically, the book explores issues of acceptance, banishment, belonging, cultural tolerance, environmental dependence, death, rebirth, and most importantly, metamorphosis. The book has often been cited as an example of post-colonial writing, a motif of Malouf’s work, with the metaphor of ancient Rome standing in for his modern-day Australia.

The story is narrated in the first person by Publius Ovidius Naso, also known as Ovid, the rudest and most refined poet in imperial Rome. As the novel begins, the famed Metamorphoses and The Art of Love poet laments his exile to the desolate commune of Tomis, located outside the Roman Empire on the edge of the Black Sea. Banished from his native tongue and unable to communicate with the savage locals, Ovid must learn to depend on, and coexist with, a people unlike his own. He ultimately does so by shedding the strictures of the Latin language that have informed his conventional way of life, and by finding enlightenment in the primacy of nature. Written in poetic prose often meant to mimic Ovid’s own style, Malouf emphasizes the importance of living in nature and accepting cultural differences as a means of enriching, not threatening, one’s own outlook on life.

The first of five chapters begins with Ovid’s arrival in Tomis, located south of the Danube River in Italy. Ovid is taken in by The Getae, a native tribe dwelling on the outer fringes of the Roman Empire. At first frustrated, isolated, and alienated by his drab surroundings and the inability to speak his own Latin language, Ovid slowly begins to understand and adapt to the cultural differences of The Getae. After glimpsing a lone poppy in bloom, Ovid is reintroduced to nature, and happily helps perform village chores such as gardening. Ovid also attempts to learn the language of the native barbarians. He realizes that their language, while nowhere near as nuanced as Latin, is based on a kind of cosmic connectivity rather than human disintegration. That is, in Tomis, language is used to bring people together rather than tear them apart. As a result, Ovid grows close with an old man named Ryzak, the village leader.



Along with Ryzak on an annual deer hunting excursion, Ovid spots a mysterious wild Child, a feral young boy that has been raised among nature in the snowy woods. The natives wish to hunt and capture The Child, believing his soul to be possessed by a demonic spirit. But Ovid seeks to befriend The Child and welcome him into the tribe for observation. The natives detest this idea at first; afraid that The Child will soon transform into a werewolf and ravage the villagers.

Eventually, Ryzak allows The Child to stay with Ovid. Yet due to The Child’s menacing presence, Ryzak’s aging mother and the town shaman continue to antagonize Ovid. Ryzak’s unnamed daughter-in-law is the only person willing and able to help cure The Child, which she attempts to do. Shortly after, Ryzak’s grandson Lullo begins experiencing strange seizures that the tribesmen inevitably blame on The Child. Lullo recovers, but soon Ryzak experiences similar spasms and falls into an epileptic trance. Now certain the devil is afoot, the barbarians kill Ryzak in a state of hysterics. Ovid and The Child then flee into the forest.

When Ovid and The Child retreat to the woods, a lasting bond between the two is formed. By attempting to see the world through The Child’s primal eyes, Ovid comes to realize that his own civilized way of life isn’t the “be all and end all.” He also comes to terms with the awesome power of nature itself, however unknowable its universal language is to decode. In setting out to teach The Child how to act civilized, it is actually Ovid who learns most from the boy. The poet marvels at The Child’s purity and how untainted he is by civilization (or lack thereof). Ovid yearns to be as free as The Child is without the limitations of language. Over the course of his time in Tomis, Ovid acknowledges that the universality of nature supersedes language, and that to fully abide by the ways of nature is to know the true awe of life and death.



In the end, the roles are reversed. Ovid becomes an old man that is looked after by The Child. Ovid dies in The Child’s arms. His final metamorphosis is one of acceptance. Ovid accepts his death not as the end, but as a mere transition to another phase. He’s at peace with giving his body over to primal nature, a lesson he learned from his time with The Child. By his own admission, Ovid states: "I have stopped seeing fault with creation and have learned to accept it" (p. 64). Ovid’s return to nature allows him to pass away peacefully.

An Imaginary Life, Malouf’s second novel, would go on to win The New South Wales Premier's Literary Award — Fiction for 1979. The novella was reprinted in May, 1996.