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Product Description
Peter Ackroyd's novel complete and unabridged on 6 cassettes, read by Michael Maloney.
Sophia Chrysanthis is in her twenties when the celebrated German archaeologist, Herr Obermann, seeks her out; he wants a Greek bride who is able to read Homer. Sophia passes his test, and soon she is tying canvas sacking to her legs so that she can kneel on the hard ground in the trench, removing the earth methodically, identifying salient points, lifting out amphorae and bronze vessels without damaging them. Obermann is very good in the art of archaeology - perhaps too good. Obsessive and intuitive, he is a romantic visionary.
Troy is the definitive city lost and found; and Peter Ackroyd brings it electrifyingly to life in this fascinating novel of heroes, truth, fact and fiction.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first novel by Ackroyd that I have read. Although I came with no preconceptions, I must admit that I was hoping for the "gripping and terrible" story, promised on the back cover. What I actually got was a mediocre story.
The book follows the archaeologist, Herr Obermann, whose passion for Troy and its legend seems to know no bounds - it posesses him and all that he percieves in the world. In deed, his passion is so large that he seeks out a Greek wife who is able to read the works of Homer. Sophia, his new wife is much younger than Obermann, but out of duty to her parents, and because she also has a great love for Troy, she agrees to the marriage and determines to make the best of it.
Yet Obermann's obsession with Troy slowly begins to take more of a sinister twist. He makes his findings fit his own theories, and when an American begins to question his work, he just so happens to come down with a mysterious illness.
As the novel progresses to its ending, Sophia aslo learns that Obermann has other, darker secrets that he is keeping from her - a secret that will ultimately lead him to his own destiny.
Ackroyd has done a good job at creating the character of Obermann. Although he is not very likeable, he is not two dimensional. Sophia, also is quite believeable - the word I would use to sum her up is 'dutiful'. Yet, despite this good characterisation, the story, for me, left a lot to be desired. The love affair seemed rushed and intangible; I saw it more as a way to help the ending along. Even the ending was an anti-climax. It was not the terrible and gripping ending that was promised; for a seasoned writer, I expected more.
Overall, this is an OK read. Good for a short while, but not something that will grip you from page one right up to the very end. Like archaeology, you may have to dig a little deeper.
The book follows the archaeologist, Herr Obermann, whose passion for Troy and its legend seems to know no bounds - it posesses him and all that he percieves in the world. In deed, his passion is so large that he seeks out a Greek wife who is able to read the works of Homer. Sophia, his new wife is much younger than Obermann, but out of duty to her parents, and because she also has a great love for Troy, she agrees to the marriage and determines to make the best of it.
Yet Obermann's obsession with Troy slowly begins to take more of a sinister twist. He makes his findings fit his own theories, and when an American begins to question his work, he just so happens to come down with a mysterious illness.
As the novel progresses to its ending, Sophia aslo learns that Obermann has other, darker secrets that he is keeping from her - a secret that will ultimately lead him to his own destiny.
Ackroyd has done a good job at creating the character of Obermann. Although he is not very likeable, he is not two dimensional. Sophia, also is quite believeable - the word I would use to sum her up is 'dutiful'. Yet, despite this good characterisation, the story, for me, left a lot to be desired. The love affair seemed rushed and intangible; I saw it more as a way to help the ending along. Even the ending was an anti-climax. It was not the terrible and gripping ending that was promised; for a seasoned writer, I expected more.
Overall, this is an OK read. Good for a short while, but not something that will grip you from page one right up to the very end. Like archaeology, you may have to dig a little deeper.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This novel is based on the lives of the German excavator of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann (here called Heinrich Obermann) and his Greek second wife and fellow archaeologist Sophia Engastromenos (here called Sophia Chrysanthis). Both are deeply devoted to the Iliad and to Troy, but Obermann prides himself not only on his scientific skills but also on his intuition and imagination which make him identify physical features (beautifully described) with the very spots which Homer's gods and heroes had trodden. He is superstitious and even believes, when they experience an earthquake, that it was Zeus speaking. So vivid is his imagination that he takes liberties - to put it mildly - with archaeological evidence when it does not fit his theories (as the real Schliemann did also). In this novel he is a most unattractive character: loud, uncouth, unashamedly boastful of his genius, peremptory and controlling, and intolerantly dogmatic whenever his conclusions are challenged by other archaeologists - as they are in this novel by two successive visitors to his excavations. Sophia is more ready to listen to them, and she has already caught her husband out in telling downright lies - and she will discover more of what he is capable of. And then Ackroyd's own imagination, which for much of the book has been tethered to aspects of the real Schliemann's life, takes off to a purely invented ending that is, however, aptly in tune with the kind of myths in which Obermann had so passionately believed.
A tale well told.
A tale well told.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Hugely enjoyable. This book had the effect of reawakening an old fascination of mine with the Trojan material. Of course, Ackroyd is a great story-teller, and this one realy captures the feel of mid-19th century excavations on the hill of Hisarlik. The central character is clearly Heinrich Schlieman under another name, and the excitement and passion for the old stories held by that individual is convincingly and sympathetically done. The elaborations that Ackroyd adds, however, pique curiosity to the utmost, and it was these elements that sent me scurrying back to the archaelogical books to try to find out the truth. Read it -- it's short; and then go back to Homer and the rest. It's so good, I wish it all were true, especially whats at the bottom of the mound.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
If at first ... Troy, Troy and Troy again.
SAFE READING - NO SPOILERS
Herr Obermann, a German archaeologist who wants to discover the Troy of Homer is a thinly disguised story about Heinrich Schliemann (1822 -... Read more
Herr Obermann, a German archaeologist who wants to discover the Troy of Homer is a thinly disguised story about Heinrich Schliemann (1822 -... Read more
Published 9 months ago by RR Waller
After Schliemann
This short novel is a strange uneven amalgam of romance, history and latter-day Greek tragedy. Much of its content is built on Heinrich Schliemann's search for Priam's Troy & his... Read more
Published on 13 May 2010 by Jane-Anne Shaw, MA
The Fall of Troy
Mr Ackroyd brings his usual expertise to this modern novel which is linked back to the actual fall of Troy. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2009 by J. Higham
Slight and superficial
As some other reviewers have said, this is a disappointing book which lacks all the atmosphere of Hawksmoor and other Ackroyd works. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2009 by Roman Clodia
Parallels with the past
In The Fall Of Troy, Peter Ackroyd explores some grand themes against a backdrop of a grander history, but always from the narrowed view of an obsession that denies experience. Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2009 by Philip Spires
Slight, trite and predictable
This novel is not actually set during the Trojan War as its title might suggest. It's set in the late 19th century as German archaeologist Heinrich Obermann (closely modelled on... Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2008 by justininlondon
"It is a city of life"
Setting his tale in Turkey, Peter Ackroyd's strange and adventurous novel revolves around the fate of Heinrich Schliemann, the 19th century arcaeologist cum smuggler of ancient... Read more
Published on 12 Dec 2007 by Michael Leonard
Disappointing
I was really looking forward to this book but was ultimately disappointed. Peter Ackroyd's fiction usually appears to be between 200 and 250 pages and his stories usually fit this... Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2007 by Mr. Simon Clarke
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