Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.75 You Save: $22.25 (86%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome
Book Review: Cicero's Rise to Power
Summary: 5 Stars
I am in awe of the fictional writers of the Roman Empire: Graves, McCullough, Saylor, Harris and many others. Steeped in the history, they can envision the time and bring it alive. Each of the novels I have read by these authors has brought me more in touch with some element of the complex culture of the time.
Here, through a speculative treatment on how Cicero became a "new man", Harris shows us how elections took place and how corruption, for which this society was known, infected them. Harris also deals with issues of class and the entrenched attitudes about status. Through Cicero's rise we learn and these issues affected politics after Sula and the Civil War.
We also get a plausible portrait of Cicero, how he thought and what motivated him.
I highly recommend this for anyone who has interest in this historical period.
Book Review: Excellent, and very different from McCullough
Summary: 5 Stars
I love Colleen McCullough's sprawling Roman series, which is an extraordinary panorama of one of the most turbulent, fascinating and influential eras of western history, the six-decade-long Fall of the Roman Republic. She's not as polished a writer as Robert Harris, though...her books are wonderfully prolix, almost too much so, and she has certain repetitive mannerisms which can annoy. But the series certainly is a monumental achievement.
While McCullough focuses around the towering life and impact of Julius Caesar, Harris's choice of Cicero is perhaps even more revealing of the true nature of Late Republican politics. Cicero was a major player for most of this period, whose complex relationships with the various factions had immense influence on the course of events, and yet -- unlike Caesar, born to the highest aristocracy -- he was also an outsider who depended entirely on his wits to struggle and survive. Harris deftly depicts his qualities of pragmatism, idealism and political cunning as he negotiates the viper's nest of public service in ancient Rome.
Cicero hasn't aged well in most modern historical recreations. I believe most of our contemporaries accept the greatness and inevitability of Caesar, or someone very like him. Because Cicero opposed Caesar and his faction, and eventually lost his life for it, he comes across most often as a stuffy, self-serving, conniving, all-too-outspoken conservative out of step with the times. The fabulous if inaccurate TV series Rome is just the most recent example.
In fact, Cicero may have been the only sincere defender of the Roman Republic remaining by the time he was killed...and for all its flaws, it was certainly a nobler form of government than its imperial successor.
This excellent book helps to redress the character of Cicero. I can't wait for the sequel.
Book Review: Cicero Rising
Summary: 4 Stars
Although Robert Harris writes historical fiction, he is not particularly attached to any one time or place. His first novel was actually an alternate history - a what-if-the-Nazis-won-WWII tale called Fatherland. He has, in his last two novels, however, gone back to ancient Rome, first with Pompeii (which I have not read) and now with Imperium, a fictional biography of Cicero.
Narrated by Cicero's slave Tiro (who serves more as an observer than a true character), Imperium tells of the rise of Cicero to the highest position in the Roman Republic, the consulship. The first half is actually more of a courtroom thriller, with Cicero prosecuting a corrupt Sicilian governor. Actually, most of the legal system is open to bribery, making Cicero's job all the harder. At stake is Cicero's whole career: if he can somehow pull off a victory, he can start his climb in power; if he fails, he will never be more than a lowly senator. Of course, since Cicero is well-known in history and the governor, Verres, is almost forgotten, most readers know who will win, but Harris is still able to make the prosecution suspenseful.
The second half of the book deals with Cicero's political rise and the intrigues that both help him and make him enemies. His principal ally - although not always reliable - is Pompey, the great general who is at the peak of his power. On the other side is the plutocrat Crassus, whose hatred of Pompey will create an enmity with Pompey. There is the vicious Catalina who has Crassus's backing and intends on opposing Cicero for the consulship. Finally, there is the ambitious up-and-comer, Julius Caesar.
Harris has written a good novel, but there are imperfections. For all his attempts at being historically accurate, he also has anachronisms, such as referring to the months of July and August (which would not be named until decades later after Julius and Augustus Caesar had risen to the peaks of their power). The story also ends rather abruptly, leading me to think that Harris has a sequel intended. Harris does succeed at the heart of the book, however, bringing Cicero - often thought of as the greatest orator ever - to life. Fans of historical novels - particularly Roman historical novels - should enjoy Imperium.
Book Review: a good read
Summary: 3 Stars
Imperium is the first of two volumes of a fictional biography of the Roman orator, lawyer, statesman, new man, Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Mr. Harris uses the often successful formula of relating the life story of a historical figure through the eyes of a confidante, in this case the secretary Tiro, and he does not disappoint us. Tiro does his best to show his master warts and all, while still maintaining his loyalty to him, thus creating a fairly complex character of Cicero, a reasonably approximation of the real man himself as we know him from his extensive writings, especially the letters.
That does not mean that Mr. Harris does not create his very own universe of the era and the man, with emphasis on Cicero's real or perceived adversaries, the aristocrats who disdain the New Man, and the favorite villains for most novelists writing about the late Roman republic, Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar. The latter trio does not fare as well in way of characters, they are frequently drawn as carricature. Tiro himself is depicted as somewhat priggish and bland.
Characters more sympathetic in the narrator's - and presumably the author's - eyes, such as wife Terentia, brother Quintus, and the idealistic cousin Lucius, fare better, as does the potential villain Caelius.
That said , the novel is a good read, bringing Rome and the late republic vividly to life. The uncovering of Verres' horrendous excesses in Sicily is masterful. The reader gets a good introduction to Roman politics, and Cicero's work habits and his love/hate relationship with Terentia indeed do not strain one's imagination. Tiro's well known invention and use of stenography is being put to good use and on occasion does make for a nice suspense. As in the only other book by the author which I have read so far, Pompeii, the prose is excellent.
There are some anachronisms, indicative maybe of the lack of a good reader, but not to the point where they could become annoying.
I give the book three stars and look forward to the sequel. However, I cannot agree with Allan Massie, who wrote that, "Reluctantly, I must admit that Imperium is better than [my six novels]." He is much too modest!
Book Review: An plausible politician
Summary: 5 Stars
Even through fiction I think Harris has captured the essence of politicians that existed then and still do today. It seems to me a very likely scenario, not necessarily kind to any of the characters. I have often thought that there is not a single species of humans but two: homo sapiens and homo politicians. And Harris' Cicero is no better than any of the others. Cicero could claim the high moral ground in his mind, but in truth he laid the groundwork for the dissoluation of the Republic by his own desires to become Consul. Harris points out all the rules Cicero abused to achieve his goal, all the twisted morals, soul selling and double dealing he engaged in, while claiming to be the honest common man. Between bribery with money or favors and manipulations the result still remains the same except Cicero in all his blindness could not see his manipulations would have far more reaching reprisals. Nor would he admit it or perhaps realize or care what he had done because he was the consumate politcian. Yet Cicero's greatness still comes out in the story. Harris I think took fact and made it one of the most compeling and accurate stories of the period. Engaging story, excellent detail and somewhat depressing because nothing has changed for over 2000 years. I hope he does a follow up to this story.