I'm going to review this on my BookTube Channel Lokster Reads so my full thoughts will go there and then I'll transfer them here. But - spoiler - thisI'm going to review this on my BookTube Channel Lokster Reads so my full thoughts will go there and then I'll transfer them here. But - spoiler - this is an excellent book. ...more
Will be reviewing it tomorrow for my BookTube channel. Have been working through info on poets. And stats. You know you're getting old though when 11 Will be reviewing it tomorrow for my BookTube channel. Have been working through info on poets. And stats. You know you're getting old though when 11 of the poets in a World War One poetry anthology were still alive when you were born. ...more
This is the third Mary Beard book I've read. It is an attempt to get us to understand the role of Emperor in Ancient Rome - starting with Julius CaesaThis is the third Mary Beard book I've read. It is an attempt to get us to understand the role of Emperor in Ancient Rome - starting with Julius Caesar (who wasn't actually emperor) and ending with Alexander Severus in 235AD. After which, Beard points out, the role of Emperor changed.
It is a fascinating read. Split into 10 chapters, plus Prologue and Epilogue, it looks at different aspects of the Emperor's role and life. Beard tries to show how they behaved, how they were portrayed and what their function was in both life and death. She looks at the basic expectations, succession, dining, their palaces and the people that inhabited their palaces, what the day-to-day role was, how they spent their spare time, what it was like when Emperor's travelled, their image through art and architecture, and finally how - and if - they became Gods.
It is full of interesting stories and analysis. One thing I like about Beard is that she openly admits how precarious most of our understanding of Ancient Rome and the individual Emperors is. Partly because so much has been lost and partly because what does survive might be propaganda/anti-propaganda. Stories about how bad Emperors behaved might or might not be true but they're what have come down to us. The way certain stories are repeated with different Emperors. Also our view of Emperors is skewed by more modern takes on their lives, like I, Claudius. This applies doubly to the women in the Emperors lives who are often portrayed as manipulative, poisoners, or sex crazy.
The very uncertainty of what Beard is discussing is one of the things that makes this attempt at understanding what being Emperor was and meant useful. She uses archaeological evidence as well as literary sources but, again, so much has been lost that - for example - even the archaeology of Imperial Palaces can't quite show us how they functioned.
Plus a huge chunk of the Roman world is all but invisible: slaves and ordinary Roman citizens. How can we ever know how they felt about Emperors except through educated guesses based on the limited evidence we have. It seems to me Beard handles that evidence well and honestly. To steal a quote from Douglas Adams - badly - there a sufficient levels of doubt and uncertainty to make you understand that what Beard is doing here isn't definitive. It never will be....more
'Guardian angel, he lacks no longer; Evil fortune he need not fear: Fate is strong but Love is stronger And more unsleeping than angel's care'
I wasn't 'Guardian angel, he lacks no longer; Evil fortune he need not fear: Fate is strong but Love is stronger And more unsleeping than angel's care'
I wasn't sure what to expect from this poetry collection. I've read 'Wuthering Heights', which I have mixed feelings about and was wondering what Emily Brontë's poetry would be like. And the answer is it is mostly fine work. It is both what I expected from the author of 'Wuthering Heights' and not what I was expecting.
There is a Gothic gloom to a lot of these poems. Death haunts many of them. Love too. A lot of them seem to involve people held in prisons - dungeons - and meditating on their fate and their loss. But that's because a chunk of them are part of the 'Gondal' poems.
'Gondal' was a world - a place - that the Brontë's created and that - to give it a contemporary spin - would have been the setting for their Dungeons and Dragons campaign if such a thing existed. In fact I remember reading in Harry Pearson's 'Achtung Schweinhund!' that they fought battles in Gondal with toy soldiers. So they weren't far off. These Gondal poems are a fair chunk of the contents of this collection.
But thou art now on a desolate sea - Parted from Gondal and parted from me - All my repining is hopeless and vain, Death never yields back his victims again-
The Gondal poems I liked a lot. It appeals to my fantasy instincts. You wonder whether Emily Brontë might have written something fantasy related if she'd lived longer. She died 30 years before Lord Dunsany was born but you get the impression Emily Brontë would love fantasy. Not cosy fantasy though, but possibly grim dark. Gondal lacks fantasy races. It seems to be mainly humans, although there is talk of angels and god.
There's lots of poems about graves and deaths. I mean Emily Brontë is a Goth before they were a thing. Or when they were a different thing. I love the Emily Brontë of these poems more than the Emily Brontë of 'Wuthering Heights' even though they are the same person. The connections between the two are so obvious even if they're not spelled out obviously.
I really recommend these. I got this from the library but I'll buy a copy to keep at some point. It is edited and introduced by Janet Gezari who has tried to arrange the poems in chronological order of composition, which is a brave task. The introduction and notes are excellent. This is one of those Penguin Classics that feels essential.
What use is it to slumber here: Though the heart be sad and weary? What use is it to slumber here Though the day rise dark and dreary
For that mist may break when the sun is high And this soul forget its sorrow And the rosy ray of the closing day May promise a brighter morrow ...more
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