First of all - I loved this book. It does a great job of telling the story of the life and reign of Augustus and of trying to get inside the head of aFirst of all - I loved this book. It does a great job of telling the story of the life and reign of Augustus and of trying to get inside the head of a man about who we know lots and about who we know almost nothing, particularly his interior life and his motivations. Others can speculate on what they might have been - and this book is one.
I like the Augustus of this book, which is perhaps too generous to him. I also like that John Williams makes a real effort not to portray the women of this book as the nymphos and monsters that other books do. Either contemporary ones or later fictional books. Yes, I, Claudius I'm looking at you. Julia and Livia both feel more 'real' human beings than they do elsewhere. No hints are given of Livia as poisoner, even as credit is given to her ambitions for Tiberius. Julia's story is less about the sex and more about her need to be a proper visible human being.
It is a epistolary novel. It's story told in letters, reports and extracts from diaries. For most of the books we only hear about Augustus through other people - friends and enemies. It is only in the final part that we hear from a dying Augustus and his section calls back to the events outlined in the earlier parts of the book but from Augustus's point of view. It is structurally magnificent.
This may be one of my favourite books. It certainly makes me adjust my opinions of I, Claudius downwards a tad. It might be time for a re-read. I feel a run of Roman reading is upon me.
It helped I think that I have some familiarity with the people and events in this book, particularly the poets of the Augustan age. Brilliant. ...more
"His life may be over, they said, but his name and his deeds would live on as long as his tale was told."
Last night I finished 'The Farthest Shore'. "His life may be over, they said, but his name and his deeds would live on as long as his tale was told."
Last night I finished 'The Farthest Shore'. The final book in the Earthsea trilogy. I highlighted a single line - "I have seen dragons on the winds of morning" - as having a real impact on me. I also noted that the story, like many stories, was one that pointed out the futility of fighting death. That death was an inevitable part of life. Beowulf is also a story like that.
Death is everywhere in Beowulf. It is sometime horrible and nasty. Even though this was written as a Young Adult or Middle Grade version of Beowulf it doesn't particularly stint on the blood and guts. Beowulf is a mighty warrior. The mightiest of warriors. But as Hrothgar, King of the Danes, says to him at their parting: "Know, mighty Beowulf, that even with you the end must come, flesh and strength will fail...Death awaits us all."
For a fighting man like me, daring is everything. How else will a fighting man be remembered if he does not dare?"
But these stories were told for a long time before they were written down. Told in the mead halls described in the book. They were only written down by Christians and Christianity seeps in, but doesn't quite overwhelm the story. God is a capital G. Grendel and his mother are referred to as 'Satan's children'. Yet as the quote above suggests Beowulf doesn't talk like a Christian and neither, really, does anyone else. This is a Germanic paganism give a gentle sheen of Christianity.
This is the second version of Beowulf I've read. The first being Seamus Heaney's excellent translation. This one is simpler and - mostly - less poetic but it feels like a story you could read out loud as it was meant to be read.
Having said that this book comes with some wonderful illustrations by Michael Foreman. One of which reminded me of Blake's 'Saturn Devouring His Son'. This means that although the page count is 150-ish pages in reality the large text and the illustrations means this is probably nearer 100 pages. Maybe less.
So, once more I have seen a dragon on the winds of morning. Once more I have read a story about the inevitability of death, even for the greatest of heroes. And this is shortly after I read 'The Epic of Gilgamesh', the OG of the warrior and inevitability of death stories.
I'll come back to this for a review later but quick note: is this really fiction? Or speculative non-fiction. Discuss?I'll come back to this for a review later but quick note: is this really fiction? Or speculative non-fiction. Discuss?...more
A lot of people I know loved this book. I wasn't sure to begin with whether I had come to it with too high expectations as a result. But by the end I A lot of people I know loved this book. I wasn't sure to begin with whether I had come to it with too high expectations as a result. But by the end I have to admit that I think it is a superb book. An ecological historical supernatural tale of America. A series of stories linked to the land and to each other. O, and there are apples.
The writing is great, although I'm not a massive fan of the song lyrics.
I enjoyed some of the stories more than others.
It's great and when you compare it to what made the Booker Longlist this year (and the excrescence of a book that won it) you wonder about the qualifications of the judges even more. It's a better apple book that 'This Other Eden'. It's a better book than almost all the longlist. It might not have been put forward by the publisher. But it should have been.
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