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Sign up todayAugustus
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Learn moreA brilliant and beautifully written novel in the tradition of Robert Graves’ I, Claudius, Augustus is a sweeping narrative that brings vividly to life a compelling cast of historical figures through their letters, dispatches, and memoirs.
A mere eighteen years of age when his uncle, Julius Caesar, is murdered, Octavius Caesar prematurely inherits rule of the Roman Republic. Surrounded by men who are jockeying for power—Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Mark Antony—young Octavius must work against the powerful Roman political machinations to claim his destiny as first Roman emperor. Sprung from meticulous research and the pen of a true poet, Augustus tells the story of one man’s dream to liberate a corrupt Rome from the fancy of the capriciously crooked and the wildly wealthy.
John Williams (1922–1994) was born in Texas. The poet and novelist taught at and received his PhD from the University of Missouri in the early 1950s. In 1955 he became the director of the University of Denver’s creative writing program, where he became the editor of the University of Denver Quarterly. He remained at Denver until his retirement in 1986. He was a cowinner of the 1973 National Book Award for Fiction for the novel Augustus.
Robin Field is the AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator of numerous audiobooks, as well as an award-winning actor, singer, writer, and lyricist whose career has spanned six decades. He has starred on and off Broadway, headlined at Carnegie Hall, authored numerous musical reviews, and hosted or performed on a number of television and radio programs over the years.
Reviews
“Out of the events surrounding one of the pivotal moments in Western history…John Williams has fashioned an always engaging, psychologically convincing work of fiction.”
“One is drawn deeply into a world whose complexity, luxury, political cynicism, public gullibility, and violence seem very much like our own.”
“Novel or history, this is an excellent book…A superior work of the imagination.”
“Augustus is a masterpiece.”
“Augustus is a vividly imagined re-creation of classical Rome, but its intuitive grasp of the experience of immense power makes it an unusual, and superior, novel.”
“It would be easy to over-praise this novel; but there does not seem any adequate reason why this temptation should be resisted, especially as Mr. Williams in his turn resists the obvious one of allowing irony too prominent a part in the proceedings.”
“A novel of extraordinary range, yet of extraordinary minuteness, that manages never to sacrifice one quality for the other.”
“A pleasure to read…A most polished performance.”
“Williams has immersed himself in ancient history, its figures, its conflicts, its complicated intrigues, and its often primitive turmoil. In his vivid panorama, the Golden Age sparkles with an eloquence, at times, approaching the poetic.”
“Strong and striking…Intelligent and intuitive, this excellent historical novel makes the world of Ancient Rome a place in which we feel instantly at home.”
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