Augustus
Ratings28
Average rating4.3
Une lecture passionnante et émouvante sur la vie d'Octave, neveu et fils adoptif de Jules César puis premier Empereur de Rome sous le nom d'Auguste. Un livre à la fois passionnant d'un point de vue historique et sur la vie et les rapports humains.
I bought this via Kobo (formerly Shortcovers) impulsively after a Pat/Kat recommendation. It's been sitting on my iPhone for awhile, but I'm now well and truly hooked. I had no idea it was written by the Stoner author - just didn't make the connection.
I've always been fascinated by Ancient Rome, not so much the Empire and the armies, but the people.
I'm very far from an expert on the subject, but I did very much enjoy this beautifully written portrayal of Augustus.
Bellissimo romanzo sull'imperatore Augusto. Uno spaccato della società romana raccontata con lettere. 8
A great read, I'm biased due to my love of Stoner but this stands on its own as a completely different sort of novel. Having said that you don't have to squint much to see themes connecting the two.
Never realised how important Augustus was. I'm an idiot! He was the most important one! More than Julius Caesar! My entire view of history has been irrevocably altered!
Love when a book does that.
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A warning for anyone considering this book, for the love of all the Roman Gods, don't listen to this on the Audible audiobook. A great example of the wrong reader almost ruining a great book. Epistolary format is hard at the best times via audiobook, but this was especially bad. The reader managed to take this format - specifically designed to capture a broad range of voices and perspectives - and reduce it down to one voice that didn't suit any of them.
I switched very quickly to physically reading the book and then things were mostly great, the voice still lingered occasionally whispering the words as I read them and ruining them, but it was manageable.
Very interesting approach to historic fiction – told in snippets of letters from various perspectives – Augustus' own writings, those of his friends and his enemies, his daughter, etc. Though none from the perspective of his wife, which is interesting in itself. It created more of a distance between myself and the characters in some respects but I did enjoy it and always love reading about Octavius and his family.
I absolutely loved Stoner and was expecting to be blown away by Augustus. The story is told through various accounts, which was a little bit hard for me to get into at first, but I ended up really enjoying it. I knew next to nothing about the Romans/Greeks/Egyptians, so this was a good venture outside of the usual modern literary fiction I read.
