The style of autobiographical confession of suffering in The Golden Ass influenced Augustine of Hippo in the tone and style—partly in polemic—of his Confessions.[12] Scholars note that Apuleius came from the Algerian city of M'Daourouch in Souk Ahras Province, where Augustine would later study. Augustine refers to Apuleius and The Golden Ass particularly derisively in The City of God.
The writing of William Shakespeare was influenced by The Golden Ass e.g. A Midsummer Night's Dream from c. 1595 where the character Bottom's head is transformed to that of an ass.[13]
In 1517, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote his own version of the story, as a terza rima poem. It was uncompleted at the time of his death.[14]
In 1708, Charles Gildon published an adaptation of The Golden Ass, titled The New Metamorphosis. A year later in 1709, he published a re-adaptation, titled The Golden Spy, which is regarded as the first, fully-fledged it-narrative in English.[15]
In 1821, Charles Nodier published "Smarra ou les Demons de la Nuit" influenced by a reading of Apuleius.
In 1883, Carlo Collodi published The Adventures of Pinocchio which includes an episode in which the puppet protagonist is transformed into an ass. Another character who is transformed alongside him is named Lucignolo (Candlewick or Lampwick), a possible allusion to Lucius. The episode is frequently featured in its subsequent adaptations.
In 1915, Franz Kafka published the short story The Metamorphosis under a quite similar name, about a young man's unexpected transformation into an "Ungeziefer", a verminous bug.
In 1956, C. S. Lewis published the allegorical novel, Till We Have Faces, retelling the Cupid–Psyche myth from books four through six of The Golden Ass from the point of view of Orual, Psyche's jealous ugly sister. The novel revolves upon the threat and hope of meeting the divine face to face. It has been called Lewis's "most compelling and powerful novel".[16]
In 1985, comic-book artist Georges Pichard adapted the text into a graphic novel titled Les Sorcières de Thessalie.
In April 1999, the Canadian Opera Company produced an operatic version of The Golden Ass by Randolph Peters, the libretto of which was written by celebrated Canadian author Robertson Davies. An operatic production of The Golden Ass also appears as a plot device in Davies's novel A Mixture of Frailties (1958).
In 1999, comic-book artist Milo Manara adapted the text into a fairly abridged graphic novel version named Le metamorfosi o l'asino d'oro.
In the fantasy novel Silverlock by John Myers Myers, the character Lucius Gil Jones is a composite of Lucius, Gil Blas in Gil Blas by Alain-René Lesage, and Tom Jones in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding.
