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benedettal's review against another edition
3.0
This book is so hard to describe without contradicting myself. It’s a very straight forward historical fiction novel revolving around a fictional love story, yet there’s so many other layers. It’s simple yet complex. Ambitious and unique, yet very traditional, to a fault. Its characters are split between extremely fascinating and rather dull and one-dimensional. I wish I’d liked it more, yet I didn’t. Now that I think about it, it reminds me a lot of hunchback of notre dame.
One of the novel’s most outstanding qualities is its setting, right in the heart of nero’s rome, with none other than petronius opening and closing the novel. The amount of historical figures features is incredible: seneca (wish he played a larger role), poppea, saint peter and saint paul, nerva gets mentioned a few times, as well as all the lesser known higher ups of nero’s court. It’s fascinating to me that a polish author in 1890something would be writing about this era, I feel like it’s quite a rare occurrence, anywhere in europe for that matter. Obviously it’s a period in time from which we have extensive sources, but I still find it impressive that he decided to bring these characters, especially petronius who’s better known as an author than a character, to life.
At the same time, I think the choice of subject matter, however faithful to history, is too far rooted into a christian pov whereby that is the one truth, and we as readers have to accept the miracles for granted, in a non-magical realism way but in an accurate semi-historical way. I know it is fairly well documented how the christians died piously during the persecutions, and of course the religion survived, but it’s the personal (fictional) stories that felt more far fetched to me. Vinicious’ conversion happens too fast, and is too closely related to his love for Licia. Other character’s conversion also felt disingenuous, so did petronius’ tolerance, albeit qualified by the fact that he said it wasn’t for him. I think the conjectures about nero’s behaviour were probably more accurate - but that is considering that sources that survived were incredibly biased against him, and this does perpetuate a lot of myths about the emperor during the fire of rome. Still, that’s probably more on the sources rather than on this author. Another thing I appreciated but would have liked to have seen explored further is the fact that stoicism, at its peak with seneca at the time, is remarkably similar to christianity - glad it was acknowledged anyway.
The new characters made up for this novel are extremely banal imo. Vinicius and Licia’s love story is practically impossible to buy, it’s a bizzarre love at first sight followed by so many red flags, even for 1800s standards. In that sense the romance is very dated, their love is never questioned and taken for granted almost immediately, even though they’ve only spoken to each other once. Plus Licia is an absolute mary sue, she’s always running away, being hidden and being captured. She doesn’t have any kind of agency or any role to play besides this holier than thou early christian that all the christians love and all the women are jealous of.
But as I already mentioned, peter and paul are great, if a bit useless all in all. They get to preach through this novel, which is a bit much, but their time in rome is certainly an interesting story to tell. I didn’t realise that the title itself was lifted from peter’s story (it was buried deep into my subconscious as a really old memory, felt pretty dumb when I put two and two together), but yeah if anything maybe they should have had a bigger role.
The final issue was the language. I obviously read in translation, didn’t look at the date but I don’t expect new versions to the italian to be updated often, and this felt unsurprisingly very dated. Maybe it was just a faithful translation, since I’ve read the polish is also very heavy. But yeah, in any case it was not the easiest prose to process, and that’s always a bit of a pity. Still, a very interesting book to read, especially if you like historical fiction set in rome and closely related to the emperors, since nero is heavily featured.
One of the novel’s most outstanding qualities is its setting, right in the heart of nero’s rome, with none other than petronius opening and closing the novel. The amount of historical figures features is incredible: seneca (wish he played a larger role), poppea, saint peter and saint paul, nerva gets mentioned a few times, as well as all the lesser known higher ups of nero’s court. It’s fascinating to me that a polish author in 1890something would be writing about this era, I feel like it’s quite a rare occurrence, anywhere in europe for that matter. Obviously it’s a period in time from which we have extensive sources, but I still find it impressive that he decided to bring these characters, especially petronius who’s better known as an author than a character, to life.
At the same time, I think the choice of subject matter, however faithful to history, is too far rooted into a christian pov whereby that is the one truth, and we as readers have to accept the miracles for granted, in a non-magical realism way but in an accurate semi-historical way. I know it is fairly well documented how the christians died piously during the persecutions, and of course the religion survived, but it’s the personal (fictional) stories that felt more far fetched to me. Vinicious’ conversion happens too fast, and is too closely related to his love for Licia. Other character’s conversion also felt disingenuous, so did petronius’ tolerance, albeit qualified by the fact that he said it wasn’t for him. I think the conjectures about nero’s behaviour were probably more accurate - but that is considering that sources that survived were incredibly biased against him, and this does perpetuate a lot of myths about the emperor during the fire of rome. Still, that’s probably more on the sources rather than on this author. Another thing I appreciated but would have liked to have seen explored further is the fact that stoicism, at its peak with seneca at the time, is remarkably similar to christianity - glad it was acknowledged anyway.
The new characters made up for this novel are extremely banal imo. Vinicius and Licia’s love story is practically impossible to buy, it’s a bizzarre love at first sight followed by so many red flags, even for 1800s standards. In that sense the romance is very dated, their love is never questioned and taken for granted almost immediately, even though they’ve only spoken to each other once. Plus Licia is an absolute mary sue, she’s always running away, being hidden and being captured. She doesn’t have any kind of agency or any role to play besides this holier than thou early christian that all the christians love and all the women are jealous of.
But as I already mentioned, peter and paul are great, if a bit useless all in all. They get to preach through this novel, which is a bit much, but their time in rome is certainly an interesting story to tell. I didn’t realise that the title itself was lifted from peter’s story (it was buried deep into my subconscious as a really old memory, felt pretty dumb when I put two and two together), but yeah if anything maybe they should have had a bigger role.
The final issue was the language. I obviously read in translation, didn’t look at the date but I don’t expect new versions to the italian to be updated often, and this felt unsurprisingly very dated. Maybe it was just a faithful translation, since I’ve read the polish is also very heavy. But yeah, in any case it was not the easiest prose to process, and that’s always a bit of a pity. Still, a very interesting book to read, especially if you like historical fiction set in rome and closely related to the emperors, since nero is heavily featured.
domka1055's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
ljm57's review against another edition
5.0
Set in Ancient Rome (54-68AD) at the height of Nero’s debauched and corrupt reign, this epic saga with its rich description and colourful array of characters brought the era to life. Brilliant writing transported me there - to the feasts, the orgies, the processions, the Roman architecture, the gardens, the gladiatorial spectacles, the sheer opulence of daily life. But all this incredible lust for power, wealth and glory was vividly contrasted with the humble and quiet emergence of the Christian religion, their spirituality so foreign in philosophy to the Romans. A fascinating portrayal of the brutal persecution that these early Christians endured at the hands of the Romans. Then there’s the complicated love story between the young Christian girl and the wealthy Roman soldier. Well worthy of its enduring classic status.
kestrellady's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This was on my list as a Nobel Prize winning author pick and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. It's a well researched novel that centers Ancient Rome and early Christianity that really makes all of these historical figures feel like people. This is a very readable translation, too.
carriedoodledoo's review against another edition
5.0
Titillating and interesting to read. I'd class it with "Ben-Hur", in with the 1950s-Biblical-epic-movie bin, but it's also a bit more worldly than Ben-Hur (Being set in the Roman capital will do that to you). You can watch the movie first to help color the book while you read, it's not substantially different. The movie also is pretty good, it was nominated for 8 academy awards.
peonyreading's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
cdvicarage's review against another edition
Awkward 'historical' language in this translation.
lea_jcbs's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
halynah's review against another edition
5.0
A must-read classical gem, written in powerful prose, with plenty of excellently portrayed characters and a brilliant depiction of the epoch.