Folger Book Club: The Latinist by Mark Prins
A contemporary reimagining of the Daphne and Apollo myth, our June selection is a page-turning exploration of power, ambition, and the intertwining of love and obsession.
Booking and details
Dates Thu, Jun 6, 2024, 6:30pm
Venue Folger Virtual
Tickets Free, Registration required
Duration 6:30pm - 8:00pm (ET)
Our June 2024 Pick
The Latinist
by Mark Prins
Tessa Templeton has thrived at Oxford University under the tutelage and praise of esteemed classics professor Christopher Eccles. And now, his support is the one thing she can rely on: her job search has yielded nothing, and her devotion to her work has just cost her her boyfriend, Ben. Yet shortly before her thesis defense, Tessa learns that Chris has sabotaged her career—and realizes their relationship is not at all what she believed.
Driven by what he mistakes as love for Tessa, Chris has ensured that no other institution will offer her a position, keeping her at Oxford with him. His tactics grow more invasive as he determines to prove he has her best interests at heart. Meanwhile, Tessa scrambles to undo the damage—and in the process makes a startling discovery about an obscure second-century Latin poet that could launch her into academic stardom, finally freeing her from Chris’s influence.
A contemporary reimagining of the Daphne and Apollo myth, The Latinist is a page-turning exploration of power, ambition, and the intertwining of love and obsession.
Book Club resources
Interested in reading this book on your own or with a group? Enhance your reading experience with our Book Club resources, including quick links for exploring related topics, historical context, and fascinating connections with relevant items in the Folger collection.
'The Latinist' Resource Guide
To prepare for our June 6 virtual book club discussion, explore resources related to Shakespeare, Ovid, and mythology.
Ovid, Shakespeare, and 'The Latinist' (Part One)
We revisit the opening conversation between emma poltrack and Dr. Will Tosh as part of the June 2024 discussion of Mark Prins’s The Latinist.
Ovid, Shakespeare, and 'The Latinist' (Part Two)
The second part of the opening conversation between emma poltrack and Dr. Will Tosh as part of the June 2024 discussion of Mark Prins’s The Latinist.
Why did we choose this?
The Folger Shakespeare Library’s collection explores not only Shakespeare’s life and works, but also the plays’ historical context, source material, critical and performance histories, and the ways in which they inspire and are adapted by contemporary novelists.
Shakespeare often referenced mythology within his plays and was known to adapt the classics for narrative purposes, updating ancient stories for his own modern time and relying heavily on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Folger Book Club joins Folger Theatre and Folger Consort in exploring the artistic afterlives of Ovid’s works with this contemporary retelling of the Daphne and Apollo myth.
About the Book Club
Our informal Book Club is free and open to all. Our picks range from historical fiction to adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, encompassing a wide variety of genres—all sourced from a different local, independent bookstore partner each month.
Each session begins with a guest speaker exploring that month’s pick and highlighting items from the Folger collection related to the plot and themes of the novel. After the presentation, participants will be broken into smaller groups for breakout discussions, moderated by a team of staff and volunteers.
Guest Speaker
Will Tosh
Will Tosh is Head of Research at Shakespeare’s Globe, London. He teaches, writes about, and researches the literature and culture of Shakespeare’s England, and he leads the Globe’s scholarly research mission. Will’s work at the Globe includes dramaturgy, new writing development and public engagement in person, in the media and online. He is the author of Playing Indoors: Staging Early Modern Drama in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and Male Friendship and Testimonies of Love in Shakespeare’s England, which revealed the intimate social circle of the Elizabethan spy Anthony Bacon. Will’s current project is a book called Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare, to be published with Sceptre (UK) and Basic (US) in 2024.
Content transparency
The Latinist includes potentially sensitive subjects. Expand below for a full list of content.
- Death of a parent/cancer
- Suicide
- Cancer
- Domestic abuse
- Abuse of power/sexual encounter between professor and student
- Violence
This month, we are excited to partner with a new bookstore recently opened in downtown Takoma Park, The People’s Book! With over 12,000 new books, they provide readers of all ages opportunities to explore, learn, and connect. Check their calendar to see our upcoming author events and monthly book clubs!
Shop in person seven days a week from 9am-8pm at their store in Takoma Park, or order online from bookshop.org. You can also order this title as an audiobook through Libro.fm.
We would like to thank the following organizations for their generous support of this program
