Customer Reviews

Caesar (Masters of Rome)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Colleen McCullough continues her first rate "Masters of Rome" series with 'Caesar', in which we follow the events of the Gallic and Civil Wars. As with the other books in the series, McCullough shows in-depth knowledge of the events; but, more satisfying still, a true understanding of the nature of the Roman Republic, which she manages to explain in very comprehensible terms - not a mean feat! Her characterisations are excellently portrayed although it is clear that her feet are firmly in Caesar's camp (but then, whose aren't?). A first rate book that should be held alongside Robert Graves and Mary Renault in the field of historical writing.

Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neurophysicist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney She then worked as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. She is the author of the record-breaking international bestseller The Thorn Birds and her series of books on Rome have also been bestsellers. Colleen lives on Norfolk Island in the Pacific with her husband.

Colleen McCullough has been one of my favourite authors, every since I read the book The First Man in Rome and then eagerly awaited the next in the series and then the next and so on. Caesar is the fifth book in the Masters of Rome Series.

The book charts the life of arguably the most famous man from ancient history. It begins n 54 BC and the star of certainly the greatest man of his time is rising. He is claiming victory after victory in his race through Gaul. However, although the victories are gained in the name of the Republic, many of the most important men in Rome are terrified. No Roman general has ever before brought his legions to the gates of Rome and they feel he must be destroyed before he can take the city and name himself as Dictator . . .

McCullough is one of those writers that require you to switch off some of your critical faculties if you are to make it through 700 pages (and every book in her Caesar series is that long) without whingeing on every page. Her dialogue is merely serviceable. Every character sounds much like every other, and their speech is annoyingly modern. The trick with historical novels is not rendering authentic speech - which would be unreadable - but simply avoiding language of the most recent coinage. "The idea being to keep the besieged inside and negate any possibility of aid and supplies coming from the outside," says Caesar. That "negate any possibility of" is just ultra-modern verbal fluff. It would read so much better if you replaced the whole phrase with a single word like "block" or "prevent".

Some of her descriptive sallies just leave you scratching your head. Caesar's mother Aurelia is described at least twice in the series as having "ice-brown" hair, which means no more to me than "lemon-pink" or "sky-green".

On the other hand, McCullough is a good action writer, reversing the stereotype of the woman novelist. She's a bit like Hammond Innes, who isn't much good indoors, but when he gets out into the snow and ice and hurricanes and raging seas the quality jumps up several notches. She's at her best on the move - across the Alps, down into the plains, digging the fortifications, moving up the cohorts. Her description of the siege of Alesia is worth the price of the book all by itself.

Others have pointed to her Caesar-worship as an irritation, but it doesn't bother me in itself, only where it leads her to bend historical facts in his favour. She gives the impression that Titus Labienus was dropped from the team when Caesar crossed the Rubicon, owing to his bloodthirsty record. The probable truth is more prosaic. Labienus was Pompey's client, and could be expected to support his patron when the chips were down. But she has a tendency to give a bad press to all Caesar's enemies. In her hands, Pompey himself is turned into a bit of a clown. You could put it down to novelist's licence, but there are occasional errors that don't fall under that head. Her illustration of the siege-works at Avaricum shows her drawing an onager and calling it a ballista. But it's at least a century too soon for the onager. She also thinks torches placed along the pallisades of a fort will light up the attackers rather than the defenders.

McCullough won't win any literary prizes, but she does tell a cracking story. I've got through five of the six volumes in the last two years without begrudging the time, and I look forward to The October Horse as the culmination of a splendid series.

Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neurophysicist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney She then worked as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. She is the author of the record-breaking international bestseller The Thorn Birds and her series of books on Rome have also been bestsellers. Colleen lives on Norfolk Island in the Pacific with her husband.

Colleen McCullough has been one of my favourite authors, every since I read the book The First Man in Rome and then eagerly awaited the next in the series and then the next and so on. Caesar is the fifth book in the Masters of Rome Series.

The book charts the life of arguably the most famous man from ancient history. It begins n 54 BC and the star of certainly the greatest man of his time is rising. He is claiming victory after victory in his race through Gaul. However, although the victories are gained in the name of the Republic, many of the most important men in Rome are terrified. No Roman general has ever before brought his legions to the gates of Rome and they feel he must be destroyed before he can take the city and name himself as Dictator . . .

As the other 4 books before it, this ones is still a masterpiece....the best damn coolection about rome i ever read..surpassing the works of conn iggulden,steven taylor and allan Massie among others! a very much "must read"!!!

You'd hardly believe, reading this door-stopper, that Julius gave his surname (Head of Hair) to the most dictatorial rulers of European history (Kaiser, Czar). In McCullough's book he is as close to being a god as the Romans made him, and don't say a bad word about him to his troops, they'll tear you apart, the way they did the Celts of France and Belgium. Perhaps it's a tribute to McCullough's scholarship and sturdy fictioneering that the beastly Romans who wiped out tree worship across the west come across as admirable. McCullough could never have written Spartacus: she identifies 100 per cent with the togate ruling classes. Perhaps that's why this is an engrossing read: but beware, the story ends, not with Caesar's assassination, but with his decision to cross the Rubicon. The rest is, presumably, another door-stopper.

Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neurophysicist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney She then worked as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. She is the author of the record-breaking international bestseller The Thorn Birds and her series of books on Rome have also been bestsellers. Colleen lives on Norfolk Island in the Pacific with her husband.

Colleen McCullough has been one of my favourite authors, every since I read the book The First Man in Rome and then eagerly awaited the next in the series and then the next and so on. Caesar is the fifth book in the Masters of Rome Series.

The book charts the life of arguably the most famous man from ancient history. It begins n 54 BC and the star of certainly the greatest man of his time is rising. He is claiming victory after victory in his race through Gaul. However, although the victories are gained in the name of the Republic, many of the most important men in Rome are terrified. No Roman general has ever before brought his legions to the gates of Rome and they feel he must be destroyed before he can take the city and name himself as Dictator . . .

Here is the history of conquering Caesar expertly deployed, but how does it rank as fiction? Mccullough's style is workmanlike, but never inspired. While the scope of her story is vast, she lacks the ability to create a big canvas and vividly conjure up the ancient world in all its detail. Caesar is an informative read, but at crucial moments the scope of the author's talent is awkwardly circumscribed. For example, the account of Caesar's response to his first (and only?) mutiny, during the civil war, attempts to be stirring, but fails to grip.