Novels on ancient history

[Jona Lendering]

This is strange! Here is a list of novels on ancient history recommended by the Association for Latin Teaching.

By Mary Renault, Arrow & Penguin
* Her Alexander the Great trilogy: The Persian Boy, Fire from Heaven, Funeral Games
* The King Must Die
* The Bull from the Sea
* The Mask of Apollo
* The Praise Singer

The Sibyl, by Pär Lagerkvist (out of print?)

By Robert Graves, Penguin
I Claudius and Claudius the God

Stephanie Plowman (out of print?)
To Spare the Conqueror and The Road to Sardis

Pompeii, by Robert Harris, Random House

By Lindsey Davis, Arrow: The Falco novels

I can not believe this. What a spineless list! Where is Gore Vidal's Julian? Too political, a failed invasion of Iraq? Where is Yourcenar's Memories of Hadrian? Too shocking, a homosexual ruler? Where is Flaubert's Salammbô? Too realistic? Still, I think that no one will deny that these three novels are a lot better than the Falco novels.

Am I the only one who is surprised by the presence of Renault's Funeral Games? I think it is a very boring novel, especially when we compare it to her master piece, The Last of the Wine, which is not listed at all.

One of the delights of the study of Antiquity is that it can potentially destroy our prejudices. Some really good novels have been written in which the past is used to criticize modern religious beliefs (e.g., Simon Vestdijk's Final Days of Pilate, Nikos Kazantzakis' Last Temptation of Christ, Robert Graves' King Jesus). I am really surprised that the Association for Latin Teaching advises us to read novels that do little to undermine our prejudices. What a pity!

[D B Campbell]

I think maybe they're aimed at school children, Jona. So the ALT won't want to recommend anything too controversial.

[Jona Lendering]

I think that I would not like it when my children were to read The Persian Boy, with its stereotypical description of the near east. That's what I would call a controversial novel. My point is that our classicists have a very conservative view on good literature; there's no book that challenges our western (heterosexual, Eurocentric, male...) prejudices.

And that's remarkable, because there used to be a time in which the study of the classics had something to do with liberty and emancipation. I am not arguing that this is better, but educators may have a less conservative bias. There must be some sort of middle course.

[Primitivus]

I think maybe they're aimed at school children...

I was introduced to the majesty of Rome as a boy through the books of Rosemary Sutcliff. I still recall her Eagle of the Ninth series fondly, even though I read it forty-five years ago.

[Jona Lendering]

... and boy was I disappointed when, after reading that lovely book, I discovered that the Ninth was not destroyed by the Picts at all!

[Robert Vermaat]

I was introduced to the majesty of Rome as a boy through the books of Rosemary Sutcliff. I still recall her Eagle of the Ninth series fondly, even though I read it forty-five years ago.

Oh yes, one of her best books!

[Virilis]

can not believe this. What a spineless list! Where is Gore Vidal's Julian? Too political, a failed invasion of Iraq? Where is Yourcenar's Memories of Hadrian? Too shocking, a homosexual ruler? Where is Flaubert's Salammbô?

Exactly! I am re-readin Julian right now and it is one of the most under-rated works I know. Did you know that Dmitri Merezhkowski (if I remember right...) have written also about Julian in his series "uprisen gods"?

Yourcenar`s Memoirs of Hadrian is also good. I think that she was a member of "academie francaise"? Henri Troyat is also and I find his books to be very "light", especially the biography of Ivan the terrible...

Has anyone read the finnish author Mika Waltari (Sinuhe etc..)? I especially like his book about Turms, the etruscan "Lukumo", who can hear " the thunder of immortality in his ears :wink: "...

[SOCL]

Has anyone read Hannibal's Elephants? It's a 1944 novel by Alfred Powers. I wouldn't say that in today's terms it is very accurate, but it was, regardless, a good read.