Augustus A Novel

Description

A brilliant and beautifully written novel in the tradition of Robert Graves' I, Claudius, Augustus is a sweeping narrative that brings vividly to life a compelling cast of historical figures through their letters, dispatches, and memoirs. A mere eighteen years of age when his uncle, Julius Caesar, is murdered, Octavius Caesar prematurely inherits rule of the Roman Republic. Surrounded by men who are jockeying for power--Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Mark Antony--young Octavius must work against the powerful Roman political machinations to claim his destiny as first Roman emperor. Sprung from meticulous research and the pen of a true poet, Augustus tells the story of one man's dream to liberate a corrupt Rome from the fancy of the capriciously crooked and the wildly wealthy.

Promotion info

'Williams has fashioned an always engaging, psychologically convincing work of fiction-a consistent and well-realized portrait' The New Yorker

Reviews

"Weir's sympathetic and detailed biography reassesses the life of a woman whose role in public life...has been underrated by historians" * New Statesman * "The finest historical novel ever written by an American" * Washington Post * "It would be easy to over-praise this novel; but there does not seem any adequate reason why this temptation should be resisted" * Economist * "A novel of extraordinary range, yet of extraordinary minuteness, that manages never to sacrifice one quality for the other" * Financial Times * "Williams has fashioned an always engaging, psychologically convincing work of fiction - a consistent and well-realized portrait" * New Yorker *