- Paperback
- Publisher: Berkley Pub Group (Mm) (Jun 1981)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0425044947
- ISBN-13: 978-0425044940
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 9.9 x 2 cm
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1 review
Original
5 Mar 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
There are aspects of this book I am tempted to call the definitive telling of the Trojan War. The author does an amazing job of placing the characters in a believable, historically plausible setting. The Trojan War was not fought during the classical age of Greece, but in the Bronze Age. We have no written history of that period in Greece or from Troy except for lists written in a script called Linear B. This was a period when history was spoken or sung by men called rhapsodes or bards. Homer set down his Iliad five hundred years after the time the actual war probably took place. There is a huge amount of leeway for the author's creativity and Miranda Seymour does not disappoint.
The characters are all flawed. From Helen's vanity, to Priam's greed, Menelaus's insecurity, and Paris's selfishness. But they all have their positive qualities as well. They are completely believable. Even the arrogant Deiphobus eventually earns Helen's pity.
There are no conversations with the Greek pantheon of gods though the belief and worship of those deities is key to the psychology of the time. Helen herself winds up revered in Troy--a position she enjoys for years until the arrival of the Greeks reveals she's only a flawed and aging woman.
The reason for Helen's flight is given a deeper grounding than love at first sight. Helen wants to avenge her family on her husband Menelaus for a crime he committed before they were married. It makes the coming of Paris seem like the answer to her prayers.
The book is beautifully written--I ran into no jarring anachronisms. The main characters are completely engaging--the lesser ones, like Hector and Andromache are solid, but you never get inside their heads as you do with Helen, Paris and Menelaus.
I highly recommend this book. I enjoyed it far more than Margaret George's more recent "Helen of Troy", which felt bland or Amanda Elyot's "Memoirs of Helen of Troy".
The characters are all flawed. From Helen's vanity, to Priam's greed, Menelaus's insecurity, and Paris's selfishness. But they all have their positive qualities as well. They are completely believable. Even the arrogant Deiphobus eventually earns Helen's pity.
There are no conversations with the Greek pantheon of gods though the belief and worship of those deities is key to the psychology of the time. Helen herself winds up revered in Troy--a position she enjoys for years until the arrival of the Greeks reveals she's only a flawed and aging woman.
The reason for Helen's flight is given a deeper grounding than love at first sight. Helen wants to avenge her family on her husband Menelaus for a crime he committed before they were married. It makes the coming of Paris seem like the answer to her prayers.
The book is beautifully written--I ran into no jarring anachronisms. The main characters are completely engaging--the lesser ones, like Hector and Andromache are solid, but you never get inside their heads as you do with Helen, Paris and Menelaus.
I highly recommend this book. I enjoyed it far more than Margaret George's more recent "Helen of Troy", which felt bland or Amanda Elyot's "Memoirs of Helen of Troy".
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