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A review by gilmoreguide
The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George
4.0
Who hasn’t heard some version of the phrase “Nero fiddled while Rome burned”? It’s long been the standard epitaph for any ruler so decadent and foolish that they were more interested in entertaining and enriching themselves than running a country. Hhhhmmm. Current similarities aside, Margaret George decides to investigate the life of Emperor Nero to see what, if any, of this historical reference is true. Her novel The Confessions of Young Nero is an in-depth look at the Roman boy who, through the convoluted lines of family and his mother’s ambition became, at sixteen, the youngest emperor in Rome’s history.
Thanks to the constant infighting in Roman politics Nero’s early life was spent with his aunt’s family. His father was dead and his mother, Agrippina was banished from Rome by her brother, Caligula. Only after Caligula’s murder does his mother return and then things get spicy. First she married a much older, wealthy man and once he re-established them in Roman society she had him murdered because money was not goal, power was. She then married the new emperor, her uncle Claudius, and soon enough he was dead and her son was on the throne.
The bulk of The Confessions of Young Nero is spent from the years 41AD to 64AD, Nero’s formative years to just past the midpoint of his reign. During that time George carefully fleshes out a Nero who shifts from a gentle child with a love of the arts and an appreciation for beauty to a young adult who must deal with the weight of unfettered power. Slowly, she shows how corrupting power without guidance can be. Nero had no father or any male figure to model himself on and his mother’s influence was of power at any cost.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-2cW
Thanks to the constant infighting in Roman politics Nero’s early life was spent with his aunt’s family. His father was dead and his mother, Agrippina was banished from Rome by her brother, Caligula. Only after Caligula’s murder does his mother return and then things get spicy. First she married a much older, wealthy man and once he re-established them in Roman society she had him murdered because money was not goal, power was. She then married the new emperor, her uncle Claudius, and soon enough he was dead and her son was on the throne.
The bulk of The Confessions of Young Nero is spent from the years 41AD to 64AD, Nero’s formative years to just past the midpoint of his reign. During that time George carefully fleshes out a Nero who shifts from a gentle child with a love of the arts and an appreciation for beauty to a young adult who must deal with the weight of unfettered power. Slowly, she shows how corrupting power without guidance can be. Nero had no father or any male figure to model himself on and his mother’s influence was of power at any cost.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-2cW