Somehow I find the elegant veil of Gibbon's prose more suggestive/erotic than gawking at the real thing.
BobW
--- andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
> What it is with I, Claudius, but obviously our
> tastes
> differ, so this won't persuade you; Graves' usual
> crystalline prose and profound knowledge of the
> sources (I'm a big fan of Graves as a poet, a
> novelist, and a critic), an ability to tell a story
> that moves -- unlike Gibbon -- and you get something
> that has made classical history to exciting to more
> people than just about anyone.
>
> I don't see what's wrong with lechery, I'm in favor
> of
> it. The Romans were big on it, Catullus, Ovid,
> Petronius, and I, Claudius is in fact pretty
> discreet.
> More so than Gore Vidal's' great and highly
> libidinous
> American historical novels, Burr through Hollywood,
> which are sort of our version of Graves on Rome. You
> want real lechery, read Graves' poetry -- he is one
> of
> the great erotic poets.
>
> No, it's not history from below. Yes, it focuses on
> the private lives and tragedies of a handful of
> Roman
> aristocrats. OK, you want to read a historical novel
> that takes the other approach, read Howard Fasts'
> Spartacus. Graves' other historical fiction, which
> you
> probably haven't read -- for example, Count
> Belisarius, Wife to Mr. Milton, Sgt. Lamb's America,
> have almost no sex, but only an American would
> complain that a work contained too much sex.
> Graves'
> history is Tacitus leavened with Suetonius, and
> maybe
> the masses would be better off reading the Annals,
> which I love, but the masses ain't gonna, and,
> Tacitus
> can't touch Graves as a popular storyteller. (Of
> substantially accurate stories.)
>
> --- Robert Wrubel <bobwrubel at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > what is it about I Claudius? It just seems like
> > crap
> > to me. Robert Graves book on Travelling in Greece
> > is
> > superb, as is every shorter work I can remember
> > reading, but turn him loose on history and you
> wind
> > up
> > with lechery. Anthony Burgess' contrapuntal
> > narration
> > of the story of the early apostles and decadent
> > contemporary Romans is much better, as fiction and
> > history. Gibbon is pretty good, too.
> > BobW
> > --- Charles Brown <charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > >>> andie nachgeborene
> > > Robert Graves', I, Claudius
> > > A book on the Borgias by some 60's Italian
> > historian
> > > Machiavelli's Prince and the Discoursi on Livy
> > > (random
> > > selections as I read along with the Borgias)
> > > Plan to start a book on the Medici next
> > > Gary Wills' Venice: the Lion City
> > > Just finished: Ross King, Brunelleschi's Dome
> and
> > > Michelangelo and The Pope's Ceiling (along with
> > the
> > > very good guide illustrated to Mike & Raphael
> you
> > > get
> > > in the Vatican, for the pix)Plan to start Tony
> > > Grafton's book on Alberti: Master Builder of the
> > > Renaissance, just bought this to follow up on
> the
> > > Brunelleschi
> > > May take Graves' Claudius the God as my next
> train
> > > reading
> > > Plan to restart Pynchon's Against the Day, read
> > > aloud
> > > with la Espouza
> > > Various books and papers on class actions for a
> > > paper
> > > I'm writing
> > > Various texts on federal civil procedure for a
> > > course
> > > I'm teaching
> > > Recently finished the new Harry Potter (eh, a
> real
> > > disappointment)
> > > Manera's Borgia series, Blood for the Pope and
> > > Incest
> > > and Power (classy or any way well drawn
> > > semi-historical pornographic comix)
> > > Some recent Serpieri Druuna books (more classy
> or
> > > any
> > > way well drawn sci fi pornographic comix)
> > > At my kids' instigation I read through (again
> > Thomas
> > > Harris Hannibal Lecter books, except for
> Hannibal
> > > Rising) ("I'll eat you up, I love you so.")
> > >
> > > ^^^^^^^^
> > >
> > > CB: Sounds like you are a voracious reader
> reading
> > > about the
> > > voracious.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ___________________________________
> > >
> >
>
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> > >
> >
> >
> > ___________________________________
> >
>
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> >
>
>
>
>
>
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