Augustus by John Williams - New York Review Books Classics Edition

Phil Clapham: I enjoyed this book more and more as it went on. It took me a while to get used to the structure of the narrative, which is told exclusively in letters and journals (mostly chronologically, unless the story requires a retrospective summary of events). But it works, and the quality of the writing is superb. The novel details the life of Octavius Caesar (later the Emperor Augustus), from the assassination of Julius Caesar to Augustus' death in 14 CE. This isn't a dramatic, action-packed page-turner; it is much more satisfying than that, with the characters' own words detailing the various intrigues, passions and sometimes self-doubt that accompanied the great events of Augustus' reign.

The final section, in which Augustus writes a long letter to an old friend reviewing his life, is a masterpiece of both writing and thought.

United States on Nov 13, 2023

G. SPORTON: John Williams is better known for the grim campus novel 'Stoner', but as he himself pointed out, the power struggles in universities have all the features of grand politics, just not the prizes. This novel inverts that premise through its observations of Octavius by others, sometimes contemporaneous with his actions, others interpreted by memory, giving the book its disrupted narrative structure. The collections of letters and memoirs apparently assembled for us are organised to provide a linear narrative enhanced by evidence collected across time without providing a conventional progression from one event to another.

This really works as Octavius rises to power, as we see him as constructed in the eyes of others who are looking at him because of who he is and what he needs to become. This is less satsifying through Book II, which focuses on his daughter, Julia, or his own first person appearance in Book III. In both cases, he is no longer creating himself for the role he must perform but in the performance of it (and this includes the valedictory letter which is perfectly arch and as written for posterity as his actions in government).

This makes for a fascinating...

United Kingdom on Jul 07, 2022

Gerhard Mersmann: Regardless of the general weather conditions of the present, it always broadens the view to deal with history. It relativizes one's own state of mind and leads to insights of various kinds. Sometimes we see parallels, which leads to astonishment, because we are, as we so often mistakenly think, standing on the high pinnacle of enlightened, modern and cosmopolitan knowledge and carrying deep in our unconscious the misconception that everything that already was has something to do in its fatal development with the underestimation of those who were active at the time. And sometimes, rather more rarely, we are astonished because we discover a wisdom in the long past that we ardently desire, because the present in its narrow-mindedness seems all too overwhelming.

John Williams, an American author less well known in our latitudes, whose "Stoner" and "Butchers Crossing" are great narratives, had also taken up the challenge of rewriting a historical material without immediately turning it into a mass-market thriller. With "Augustus", first published in 1971, he achieved great things. Like a criminological reconstruction in the form of testimonies in letters, Williams retells the...

Germany on Nov 20, 2020

GaTistu: Para quem gosta de romances históricos e, além disso, de "tramas epistolares", esta é a pedida.

Leitura deliciosa, este livro nos transporta para a Antiguidade, no tempo em que o Império Romano se estabelecia como tal. A ação, toda narrada por meio de cartas, trechos de diários, fragmentos de documentos históricos e até mesmo poemas, se passa entre os "Idos de Março", como ficou conhecido o assassinato de Júlio César, em 44 a.C, e a morte de seu sobrinho e filho por adoção, Caio Otávio César, Augusto, em 14 d.C., primeiro imperador de Roma.

É como se estivéssemos lendo uma obra histórica, só que ficcionalizada. E que deleite!

O livro é escrito com tanta maestria de estilo e conteúdo, que não podemos largá-lo. O autor não nega ter tomado liberdades na (re)criação de fatos e pessoas verídicos, e é justamente isso que enriquece seu trabalho.

Os personagens históricos ganham vida e humanidade. Conhecemos seus feitos e seus sentimentos. Além daquelas relativas ao protagonista, seus familiares e amigos, nos banqueteamos com as descrições acerca das existências de Marco Antônio e Cleópatra, bem como dos escritores Cícero,...

Brazil on Mar 12, 2018

Mark J: I liked this book but got lost in the host of characters. I wrote out a concordance to help me keep track. My husband said I should post it online. Please remember this is not a scholarly document, but a tool to help readers. I am sure there are mistakes and typos. The formatting did not hold up either.

AUGUSTUS by John Williams
1) Agrippa=(64-12 BC)
AO’s life-long friend of humble origins;
firstly married, Caecilla Pomponia Attica, daughter of Atticus; they produced a daughter, Vipsania Agrippina
secondly married Claudia Marcella Major=may have produced a daughter
thirdly married Julia the Elder, AO’s daughter, despite a 25-year age difference=produced five
children: A) Gaius Caesar; B) Julia, the Younger; C) Lucius Caesar; D) Agrippina the Elder:
E) Agrippa “Postumus”
suppressed disorders in Gaul & Germany (38 BC);
largely responsible for naval victory over MA at Actium (31 BC);
responsible for the construction of some of the most beautiful buildings in the history of Rome; succeeded Marcellus as chief minister in 23 BC;
tribune (18-12 BC);
died in Campania (12 BC); AO mourned him for a month & had his remains placed in...

United States on Apr 21, 2015

Ralph Blumenau: The life of Caesar Augustus is here told in the form of fictional letters, diaries, memoirs etc. They are written mainly by Augustus' supporters, by his opponents and by onlookers, so we can follow the story from all these different viewpoints. I have to say it is not the easiest way of telling the story. I found Robert Harris' novels about roughly the same period more readable.

It is hard to keep up with all the family relationships in the book, which has no family trees. Marriages and divorces were made entirely for diplomatic reasons, and some of the marriages were nigh-incestuous: two women in the story were married to half-brothers.

In Book I the young Octavius (the future Augustus) is shown to be cool and calculating after his uncle Julius Caesar had been assassinated, leaving him as his heir: his enemies underestimated him. We follow the complex maneuvers which brought him to power in Rome by the age of twenty. It ends with the Battle of Actium, in which Octavius finally vanquished his last rivals, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. The form in which Williams tells the story with all its twists and turns is not much easier to follow than a straightforward narrative...

United Kingdom on Aug 29, 2014

Richard Abbott: Augustus, by John Williams, was another book club choice: I’m not sure that I would have picked it out myself. I have come away with mixed feelings. It is very obviously a carefully written book, intricately written entirely in epistolary form. Strictly, not all sections are letters, as we have diary entries, military orders, official records and such like as well. However, every part has a sense of formally constructed distance – we are not experiencing things as they happen, but rather we are shown a highly selected series of personal reflections on events.

Although the progress of recounted events proceeds almost entirely in linear order, the time sequence of the reflections themselves is extremely nonlinear. A letter written just hours after a key moment is followed by a memoir extract from decades later. Likewise, the perspectives offered by the writers range from enthusiastic through manipulative to hostile. Most of the entries are acutely conscious of the political games being played, and are seeking to influence others one way or another. There is a constant sense that nobody’s words can really be trusted.

This was certainly an interesting ploy, but one...

United Kingdom on Jul 17, 2014

Pippin O' Rohan: "Rome, the sole object of my resentment; Rome, in whose name you have killed my lover; Rome, the only reason for your being, and whom you honor; Rome, whom I abhor for having covered you in glory;"...thus begins the passionate tirade of Camilla against her brother Horace while wishing that Rome be reduced to rubble, and his wreaths to ashes, when heartbroken she hears of the death of her lover at the hands of her warrior brother.

The above is a loose translation of a few lines of a fine heroic tragedy, crafted by one of the greatest French dramatists ever, Pierre Corneille (1606-1684). Confronted by this blasphemy, Horace strikes down his sister with his sword and then the memory of her is forsaken just as Julia, the only child and much beloved daughter of Gaius Octavius, known as Augustus Caesar the first Emperor of Rome, is nearly erased from the annals of history, and All for the Love of Rome. It was this parallel that drew my attention to "Augustus", a novel by the late brilliant American author John Williams, now somewhat forgotten along with this best known work of his, which went on to win a major award in 1973.

Such a fiery condemnation of Rome as depicted by...

United States on Sep 23, 2013