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Review
The Classical World is a more epic epic than any toga-clad celluloid epic to date... Mr Lane Fox's brilliant book, where soldiers, poets and orators fight for attention in a story that is never cluttered and always stimulating. (The Economist )
witty, ferociously learned, enormously well read (Mary Beard, The Independent )
an ambitious and exhilarating volume...The Classical World is so replete with insight and anecdote that I would love to see it in every school library. (Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday )
we are in the hands of an author who knows that an epic can only be driven by big characters such as Pericles, Demosthenes, Philip, Cicero, Pompey, Caesar and Cleopatra...Here lies the author's mastery, matching a lifelong familiarity with his subject to the basic needs of a newly arrived apprentice (Nigel Spivey, FT )
witty, ferociously learned, enormously well read (Mary Beard, The Independent )
an ambitious and exhilarating volume...The Classical World is so replete with insight and anecdote that I would love to see it in every school library. (Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday )
we are in the hands of an author who knows that an epic can only be driven by big characters such as Pericles, Demosthenes, Philip, Cicero, Pompey, Caesar and Cleopatra...Here lies the author's mastery, matching a lifelong familiarity with his subject to the basic needs of a newly arrived apprentice (Nigel Spivey, FT )
Mary Beard, The Independent
'witty, ferociously learned, enormously well read'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
79 of 81 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an outstanding sweep across hundreds of years of Classical Greek and Roman history by a very fine scholar with a well-tuned popular touch.
Ranging from the poet Homer in the 7th century BCE, to the Roman 'First Citizen' Hadrian surveying his empire from the Tyne to the Euphrates, Lane Fox communicates a lifetime experience of teaching the Classics in one compact volume, deliciously divided into chapters which can capture an era or event in one pre-sleep bite! His view is even handed, but his enthusiasm for figures such as Pliny and Cicero shine out. He also has a soft spot for gardeners...
This is an excellent starting point for further reading, with excellent and easily usable notes and bibliographies. The illustrations are fascinatingly discussed in an appendix. I especially enjoyed the careful modern nuances that alluded to 'spin' and 'regime change' - these can be clumsy in lesser writers, but they were revealing and apposite here.
A very very fine book covering a vital aspect of human history, and essential to fully understand the Western World with all its achievements, weaknesses and cruelties.
Ranging from the poet Homer in the 7th century BCE, to the Roman 'First Citizen' Hadrian surveying his empire from the Tyne to the Euphrates, Lane Fox communicates a lifetime experience of teaching the Classics in one compact volume, deliciously divided into chapters which can capture an era or event in one pre-sleep bite! His view is even handed, but his enthusiasm for figures such as Pliny and Cicero shine out. He also has a soft spot for gardeners...
This is an excellent starting point for further reading, with excellent and easily usable notes and bibliographies. The illustrations are fascinatingly discussed in an appendix. I especially enjoyed the careful modern nuances that alluded to 'spin' and 'regime change' - these can be clumsy in lesser writers, but they were revealing and apposite here.
A very very fine book covering a vital aspect of human history, and essential to fully understand the Western World with all its achievements, weaknesses and cruelties.
65 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Robin Lane Fox, well known for his books on Alexander, has here produced one of the best overviews of classical Greek and Roman history, from the emergence of preclassical Greece to its second coming, so to speak, under Hadrian, that most philhellenic of Romans. Urbane but enthusiastic, revealing an immense learning very lightly, Lane Fox is unashamedly narrative in his approach. Essentially a Hellenist, he is perhaps unfair to some of the Romans - especially to the emperor Augustus whose achievements as a ruler surely atone for his lack of appeal as a man. Both Homer's world at the book's start, and that of the emperor Hadrian at the book's end, were aristocratic. Although Lane Fox treats the rise and fall of Athenian democracy very favourably, his general viewpoint is also elevated, unfashionably so. He concentrates on political and military events, rather ignoring cultural factors. For Greece especially, this is an omission. But overall, while his Olympian narrative may not impress some specialists, it will probably still be read with fascination and appreciation long after more specialist works have been forgotten. Lane Fox can stand deservedly in the grand narrative tradition of Gibbon.
63 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you've ever wanted to delve into Classical history but have always felt put off by the kind of high-brow, donnish aura that surrounds the subject, then this is the book for you.
I don't mean by this that the book is "dumbed-down", far from it; Lane Fox has written a gripping, accessible account of the great Greek and Roman civilisations upon which Western society still stands. He is an absolute master of sources and stories, and weaves them together into a cogent whole. This is a book not just about the princes, philosophers and Emperors but about the entire classical societies of Greece and Rome. It feels like you're there yourself.
I don't mean by this that the book is "dumbed-down", far from it; Lane Fox has written a gripping, accessible account of the great Greek and Roman civilisations upon which Western society still stands. He is an absolute master of sources and stories, and weaves them together into a cogent whole. This is a book not just about the princes, philosophers and Emperors but about the entire classical societies of Greece and Rome. It feels like you're there yourself.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Bored Lawyer
Having read ancient history books extensively as a hobby over the decades,this has been the most enjoyable, fluent and accessible read thus far. Read more
Published 2 months ago by bored lawyer
An excellent buy
This was an excellent buy, as an undergraduate in Ancient History it has become most beneficial to my learning. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Emilyj92
A good read, but biased and with detail flaws
As other reviewers have remarked, this is definitely a good read and the narrative simply draws you in. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Indiscriminate Reader
Best Book on Greece and Rome
I am impressed at how Robin Lane Fox has managed to take a near incomprehensible field such as the classical world and distilled it down to the near essentials. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Peyman Askari
Well written
I greatly enjoyed this. It is a very decent narrative history book. It covers a great deal of ground and does so in a comprehensive and rigorous way. Read more
Published 18 months ago by The Emperor
The Classical World - A Masterpeice of Historical Narrative.
This is a perfect example of British academia at its absolute best. In a market full of narratives regarding the history of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, this book, and its... Read more
Published 18 months ago by ShiDaDao Ph.D
Confusing, difficult to read
Far from being an easy-to-approach book on classical history for the non-academic and casual reader, the author has not made much effort to introduce his reader into the subject... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Dan Coin
Blood Wars, Blood Sports and Blood In The Hippodrome
Highly readable and enjoyable and should whet your appetite to discover more (I went out to buy Catullus, Lucretius, Pliny, Cicero and more just on RLFox's enthusiastic writing). Read more
Published 22 months ago by demola
The Classical World
This book was a gift to my daughters boyfriend. He is fascinated by ancient civilisation so will find this a good book to accompany others he has read. Read more
Published on 19 Nov 2009 by S. Widdows
Excellent as an overview
I found the book's strengths as:
1) It covered the full breadth of the ancient Greek and Roman period. Read more
1) It covered the full breadth of the ancient Greek and Roman period. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2009 by Dr. Saqib Qureshi
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