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Jane's Reviews > The Roman
The Roman
by
by
Jane's review
bookshelves: reviewed, ancient-rome, library
Oct 05, 2012
bookshelves: reviewed, ancient-rome, library
Read 2 times. Last read October 4, 2017 to October 6, 2017.
Excellent historical novel -- the fictional memoir of a Roman patrician, written for his son. It spans many decades: from Emperor Claudius's reign until Domitian.
The hero fights with the II Legion in Brittania. His loves, his stint as beastmaster for the arena, government positions and postings to far-flung corners of the Roman Empire are all detailed, against the backdrop of Roman political upheaval. Always, the theme of Christianity, that small, proscribed sect, runs through the story, and influences the climax, given in an epilogue. Written more than 50 years ago, there are some factual errors but it is surprisingly well researched for those days. The book bogged down in Nero's reign and became tedious for awhile, then picked up again. The book probably could have used a more judicious editor at the part on Nero's reign. It is the 2nd volume in a duology: the first volume being The Secret of the Kingdom.
The hero fights with the II Legion in Brittania. His loves, his stint as beastmaster for the arena, government positions and postings to far-flung corners of the Roman Empire are all detailed, against the backdrop of Roman political upheaval. Always, the theme of Christianity, that small, proscribed sect, runs through the story, and influences the climax, given in an epilogue. Written more than 50 years ago, there are some factual errors but it is surprisingly well researched for those days. The book bogged down in Nero's reign and became tedious for awhile, then picked up again. The book probably could have used a more judicious editor at the part on Nero's reign. It is the 2nd volume in a duology: the first volume being The Secret of the Kingdom.
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Reading Progress
October 5, 2012
–
Started Reading
October 5, 2012
– Shelved
October 6, 2012
–
Finished Reading
May 27, 2013
– Shelved as:
reviewed
August 7, 2013
– Shelved as:
ancient-rome
October 4, 2017
–
Started Reading
October 6, 2017
–
Finished Reading
April 2, 2019
– Shelved as:
library
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Tytti wrote: "No, this is not part of a trilogy but the second part of duology. The first part is The Secret of the Kingdom /book/show/2... The other two are..."
What would the original titles translate into English as?
"Sinuhe, the Egyptian" was correct, but The Etruscan is titled "Turms, immortal" and The Roman "The enemies of the humankind" or something of that nature.
I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking the title changes were marketing decisions by the publishing companies; maybe they felt at least the last two were too obscure for English-speaking readers? I'd have to reread each one, but I'd guess there's some sentence or thought in each novel from which the original title was taken...
Who knows, others seem to be titled the same way, except for the previous volume of this duology, that stayed the same. Personally I find the names too... generic? I always have to check the Finnish titles.
I also read Dark Angel, the one about the Fall of Byzantium. I thought that was pretty original. Jean Ange, a variant title, I didn't particularly like. The fact those three titles: Egyptian, Roman, Etruscan could have been an American marketing decision. And marketing deprtment could have called them a trilogy -- just a speculation.
I doubt it, they were published so far apart from each other, with other books in between. It doesn't make sense, either, because where that would leave The Secret of the Kingdom then. I haven't read The Dark Angel so I can't really comment except that it doesn't really translate well. But there are probably some religious connotations in the name Johannes Angelos.
The other two are one-offs, the person who made up the English titles has no imagination.
Btw, most of the Waltari's novels are quite heavily abridged, this seem to be only a little, judging by the page count.