5 comments about 800 Days on the Eastern Front: A Russian Soldier Remembers World War II (Modern War Studies).

1. The author tries to present a coherent depiction of activities - but the result is difficult to follow and requires additional materiel to track the flow of battle.



2. Although the negative reviewers might of had valid points, I am not sure the critism is really relevant. I knew two WWII veterans very well, one of whom wrote a brief memoir. Using them as a reference, I do not believe the author was trying to create an exciting, flowing, historically, geographically precise docudrama (if it was I would be very suspect of the motivations and validity of the document and would not have found it near as valuable). I am not sure the author was even trying to educate us although I certainly was. I believe the author was trying to set down in print a brief personal history of WWII obviously, largely from his point of view. What was added by the tranlator was an aid which allowed us to go back in time and perspective without disturbing the author's account. What the author (and the other veterans I know) think is important based on his experiences obviously doesn't always match readers expectations. With this in mind and in response to specific criticism, I found the author's references to various vehicles he encountered interesting and important. Maybe not exciting but, again, that wasn't the point. I thought the historical and geographical descriptions to be adequate in and of themselves. The author's accounts and stories flowed well enough with help from the translator's added descriptions and foot notes.
   
   I bought the book based on a recent description in the WSJ. I had read a book some time ago called "The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier." I thought it would be interesting to compare what sounded like a similar story told by two men of similar rank who fought wars in the same basic geographic area a century apart. The similarities were remarkable and reading both books contributed much to my persective of war and this region. Beyond the obvious basics of survival, what was important to these two men is very much the same. And I think what was important to these two men from their personal perspective in these two "histories" is what the authors and their "helpers" were trying to convey. Both documents succeeded in this respect and did so well enough to, dare I say it, be entertaining. I would give "The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier" 5 stars however. I thought it was a better read. If you must be constantly thrilled and excited by a book to enjoy or be informed by it, subtract one star from each rating. And if you are looking for graphic descriptions of blood, sex and gore, don't bother with either of these reads. A rating of two stars however misses both the point and the mark in my opinion. And thus ends my critique of the critics.



3. In recent years we have witnessed the publication of a multitude of military memoirs by Red Army soldiers. These memoirs are important in that they provide new insights into World War II on the Eastern Front.
   
   Nikolai Litvin's remembrances are witness to the versatility, endurance, and patience of the Red Army soldier. A Siberian by birth, Litvin served in artillery, anti-tank, and penal formations and also as a driver to various Soviet commanders. This alone makes his experiences during the war exceptional. Litvin fought at the epic battle of Kursk in July 1943 and remained with the Red Army as it attacked relentlessly westward from the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany.
   
   But Litvin was also unique in that he was officially trained and qualified to drive U.S. Army lend lease vehicles. Hundreds of thousands of these were provided to the Red Army during the war. It is clear that he had a love affair with the various "Willy" jeeps he drove throughout the conflict and his memoirs highlight the mobility American jeeps and trucks provided to the Soviet military. Those vehicles were much appreciated by Red Army soldiers like Litvin. Without them Stalin's legions would have been unable to advance to Berlin as quickly as they did.
   
   Having served his country faithfully through almost three years of brutal combat, Litvin was arrested at the end of the war for possessing a German pistol and sentenced to four years imprisonment in the Soviet Far East.
   
   His memoirs are a testament to the greatness of the Red Army soldier and the brutality of the Soviet system they served.



4. Nikolai Litvin's memoir is very low key and honest. For the most part he was a driver, either as a commanders' chauffeur or with a transport battalion. There are also some hair raising parts as well and sad stories. Litvin comes across as a man doing his duty for his country and never tries to claim credit for extraordinary deeds even if he did a few. Starting out as an anti tank gunner in a Airborne Division he was wounded early during the battle of Kursk. From there he was transfered to a transportation battalion and later he was sentenced to a penal battalion for desertion, something that wasn't really his fault. Then he got reassigned to his transport unit and got drafted from the rear units to the front replace combat losses. All through the story there are accounts of Litvin's personal experience and some very horrible incidents. Many readers will also find interesting how Litvin is fighting the infantryman' s war, since very few tanks are metioned at all. In fact with 2/3 of all Germans fighting on the Eastern Front and the majority of both Germans and Russians were infantry business, even if it wasn't the most glamorous part. Special mention should also go to Stuart Britton who completed the memoir by adding introductions and explanations to fit Litvin's experience into context and big picture. The fine team of Kansas University Press, headed by David Glantz (the current preemninent authority on the Eastern Front), did a tremendous job on this matter and these inroductions and explanations are extremely interesting. In many occasions Litvin would have been blissfully ignorant of what was really going on but as a reader it is good to be helped along by Britton. Very few mistakes are made in the text and the five b&W maps included are very good and detailed. There is also a 6-pages section of b&w photographs.



5. Considering the amount of memoirs available form WW2 it is amazing how few are from a Soviet perspective, at least in English. So in this context the book is a gem and in content it shines.
   
   Nikolai Litvin's memoir is very low key and honest. For the most part he is a driver, either as a commanders chauffeur or with a transport battalion and you get interesting small details as how dirty his one uniform becomes when he served as a mechanic. Don't worry there are hair raising parts as well and sad stories. Litvin comes across as a man doing his duty for his country and never tries to claim credit for extraordinary deeds even if he did a few.
   
   Starting out as an anti tank gunner in a Airborne Division he is wounded early during the battle of Kursk, from there he is transfered to a transportation battalion and is bombed by artillery and planes, he lives when others, even his friends die. At one point he has difficulties in disposing of a friends body. Then he is sentanced to a penal company for desertion when all he does is following a command that turns out to be a suggestion and not a proper command. His time with the penal company is very interesting. Then he gets reassigned to his transport unit and gets drafted from the rear units to the front replace combat losses. All through the story there are accounts of Litvin's personal experience and some very horrible incidents.
   
   Many readers will also find interesting how Litvin is fighting the infantry mans war, very few tanks are metioned at all. In fact with 2/3 of all Germans fighting on the Eastern Front and the majority of both Germans and Russians fighting as infantry this tells how the war was for most, even if it isn't the most glamorous part.
   
   Special mention should also go to Stuart Britton who completes the memoir by adding introductions or adds explanations to fit Litvin's experience into contex and big picture. They summarise the unfolding events and explain strategic and tactical events and I found these parts very useful and informative without casting a shade on Litvin's story. In many occasions Litvin would have been blissfully ignorant of what was really going on but as a reader it is good to be helped along by Britton.
   
   Through Litvin one gets a very diverse view of the Soviet Army and not always its most glamorous side but the toil of the every day soldier. I heartly recommend it for anyone interested in WW2 memoirs and would like read about the experience from the Russian side.

5 comments about Eleanor the Queen.

1. This is an interesting work of historical fiction by a noted writer of historical fiction and gifted storyteller, Norah Lofts. the author capably details the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most famous and celebrated women of the middle ages. Touted by the troubadours of her time as being a woman without compare, Eleanor of Aquitaine could certainly be held to be the first feminist.

   Married first to the pious King of France, Louis VII, she bore him two daughters and went with him on an unsuccessful Crusade, where she was to have a number of adventures. Stifled by the King's somewhat misogynistic advisors, she and the King would come to a parting of the way after fifteen years of marriage. No sooner was she divorced and returned to her Duchy of Aquitaine, than she met eighteen year old Henry Plantagenet, who was to become King Henry II of England. Nearly a dozen years separated them but this was to be no bar to their marriage.

   Eleanor and Henry were to marry, and she bore him numerous sons and daughters. She lived happily with Henry for many years, until she discovered that he had a mistress, the fair Rosamonde of legend. The break in their relationship would eventually result in the estrangement of Henry from his sons and the imprisonment of Eleanor for nearly eighteen years.

   This is an excellent work of historical fiction, filled with the political intrigues of the day, historical events and personages, and a story that has withstood the test of time. It is a book that those who like well-written historical fiction will, undoubtedly, enjoy.




2. Eleanor of Aquitaine must be one of the most interesting women in history. Her intellegence, her legendary beauty and her joint crusade with her first husband, the King of France would make for an amazing story alone. Now add to it that she was also the wife of King Henry II of England and the mother of Richard the Lionheart (and SEVERAL other children) and you have the makings of an epic story filled with love, betrayal, political intrigue and so much more! Instead, Lofts tells a nice story though uninspiring which touches areas of excitement briefly toying with them and then instead wanders down the a road that is interesting but dull. This is my third Norah Lofts novel and I am still seeking the same talent and style I found in A Wayside Tavern. I am again left disappointed and wondering how the same woman wrote that book and this.



3. I think Norah Lofts is an excellent writer of historical fiction & this book was very well done, however, it is not a story with many happy moments for Eleanor of Aquitaine. I usually will re-read books that I enjoy, but I find this one too sad to want to read it again - Eleanor just can't get a break, it seems. I've read Jean Plaidy's Plantagenet books involving Eleanor and she's presented in a less accurate but somehow more cheerful way in those books. This is certainly a more accurate account, but just not something that will put many smiles on your face.



4. Though Ms. Lofts prose is lovely, there is no substance to this novel. Eleanor of Aquitaine was perhaps the most influential woman in European history, culture, and politics until Elizabeth I of England, yet Ms. Lofts ignores most of Eleanor's most important contributions to Western Heritage (e.g. troubadour poetry and her patronage of Fontevrault). Ms. Lofts inexplicably ends the novel with the departure of Richard I on the Third Crusade, which means that Eleanor's role as Regent is utterly ignored. Personages who had significant roles in Eleanor's story are never or barely mentioned, such as Empress Maude and Thomas Becket. The information provided in the work seems designed for a much younger reader than the style of writing indicates.



5. Although the writing is fair in this book, I was disappointed by the lack of depth to the characters, including Eleanor. This is one of the most fascinating queens in history, whose story is multi-faceted. However, this book only scratches the surface of Eleanor's life. It does not develop the relationship between her and Henry (or their sons, for that matter), which is a major pivoting point in Eleanor's life. I did like Eleanor's prison companion, Kate, and thought her character was not as flat as most were in this book. And what about the Princess Alys, who was betrothed to Richard from a young age? This book doesn't even go into the possibility of the rumored relationship between King Henry (Richard's father) and Alys as being the reason Richard called off the betrothal. I would not recommend purchasing this book unless you can find it for a quarter or less.

No comments about Women in World History: Readings from 1500 to the Present (Sources and Studies in World History).

2 comments about Charlotte & Leopold: The True Story of The Original People's Princess.

1. James Chambers has selected, from the British monarchy's treasury of sensational history, the romantic and tragic story of Princess Charlotte (1796-1817, the daughter of the dissolute prince who would become George IV) and her husband Leopold (1790-1865, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld). This is a light biography, told sensationally and often novelistically, with a lot of dialogue, and there are no foot- or endnotes (the author claims that all quotes are already identified in the text, but I didn't find this to be true). It's also very light on the national politics and international background, with events like the Napoleonic Wars being mentioned rather than explained.
   
   Princess Charlotte was the product of the disastrous marriage between George, Prince of Wales (the eldest son of George III) and Caroline of Brunswick. The Waleses split up almost immediately, and Charlotte was brought up under a series of governesses and educated under Bishop John Fisher (whom she called the "Bish-UP", and the author annoyingly mimics this habit). Princess Charlotte was quite popular with the people, and her father, apparently in fits of jealousy, did everything he could to make her life miserable, keeping her away from her mother, firing servants that she grew close to, slighting her publicly, and treating her like a child even after she came of age. She was even grilled about her mother's activities when the Prince of Wales tried (unsuccessfully) to divorce his wife.
   
   The Prince of Wales was good enough, however, not to force Charlotte into marriage, so after an attempted match with the hereditary Prince of Orange, and an encounter with the rakish Prince August of Prussia that could have ruined her reputation, Charlotte finally met and settled on marrying a handsome officer of the Russian heavy cavalry, Prince Leopold. Even though he had not been her first choice for a husband, she quickly grew to love him, and by all accounts they had a happy and down-to-earth marriage. They did almost everything together, and Chambers relates a charming scene in which an old friend comes to visit and finds the couple at a table engrossed in piles of paper. In response to her hesitancy, Charlotte invited her in, saying, "`[T]is only Mr and Mrs Coburg settling their accounts."
   
   Things took a tragic turn when, after a worrisome pregnancy and a difficult labor, Charlotte delivered a stillborn son and then passed away shortly afterwards. The future of the monarchy was left uncertain and Leopold distraught (as was the obstetrician, whose death would complete what is known to medical history as the "triple obstetrical tragedy"). Although Leopold never really got over her untimely death (he died saying her name), he remarried fifteen years later and named his daughter Charlotte (later Empress Carlota of Mexico).
   
   Overall, this book was entertaining but a bit disappointing for its lack of depth. It's a decent introduction to Charlotte's life, but for depth and insight, a better (if older) choice is Prinny's daughter: A life of Princess Charlotte of Wales.



2. Fantastic, brilliantly written, this was so easy to read and i just couldn't put the book down. I didn't get lost in the history of who was who etc, Charlotte finally found and married her love but sadly it just wasn't to be with her early death. It has made me want to read and learn more about George 3rd (her father) sisters and i have now purchased the book George 3rd sisters (much harder reading but good so far). If you love royalty this book is a must have, very sad love story. Highly recommend.

3 comments about Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours.

1. Finally! A book for all of us who love those trashy historical romances! At least, those of us who love the historical parts. I found this book extremely well-researched as well as an easy read. Powerful men and the women who love them are always fascinating and Princess Micheal of Kent does a fantastic job in giving us those juicy details to keep your attention focused and your eyebrows raised, as well as enlightening you on significant historical events in Europe in the 17th through the 19th centuries. I highly recommend this book for those of you who don't like to admit being a trashy historical novel reader....this is one book you can proudly display on your bookshelves!



2. There have been royal mistresses for as long as there have been royals, but only a few have become legendary. And so a real-life royal, Princess Michael of Kent, has chronicled the lives of five of the most famous (or infamous) maitresses en titre in history. Not brilliant, but "Cupid and the King : Five Royal Paramours" is a good starting point.
   
   Nell Gwyn grew up in the gutter, the daughter of an alcoholic prostitute. But through bawdy charm and talent, she became a comedic actress on the London stages, and caught the eye of Charles Stuart. Though she wasn't as high-born as his other ladies, "Nellie" retained a place in Charles' heart until his death, and was faithful to him for the rest of her short life.
   
   Madame de Pompadour was an exceptional beauty who caught the eye of Louis XV, and was soon placed as his official mistress. Since she didn't like sex, she made herself invaluable to the king as a comforting friend, and created a salon where the cultured and artistic people of the time could gather. Unfortunately, her devotion to her king cost her her life.
   
   Marie Walewska was groomed from childhood to marry well, and help her family. But after being married off to a disgusting old aristocrat, the beautiful Marie met her girlhood hero -- Napoleon. For the sake of her country, Marie became Napoleon's mistress, and soon fell in love with him. But his ambition to create a dynasty ended their affair.
   
   Lola Montez was never what she seemed to be. After a nasty divorce, the Irish girl renamed herself, became a "Spanish" dancer, and lied constantly. She also snagged the heart of Ludwig I, king of Bavaria and terrible poet. As she bled the country dry, the angry inhabitants of Bavaria rebelled against their king, and sent Lola packing for the USA...
   
   Lily Langtry was a tomboy, a prankster, and her first taste of polite society was a disaster. But after marrying, she captivated London (and Oscar Wilde) with her beauty and charm. And then she captivated playboy Edward VII, his naive young cousin, and eventually reinvented herself as a respected actress.
   
   Yeah, it doesn't really say much that hasn't been said before. Many books have handled the history of courtesans and royal mistresses, and Princess Michael doesn't add much that is new to the mix. It's basically five short biographies, going over the entire lives of the subjects with plenty of interesting facts, but only a few new insights.
   
   Her writing style is solid enough, exploring the different personal and political facets of the mistresses, the kings, and their families. It's worth noting that even though the author is royalty, only the last of the bios reveals anything about royalty, upper-class society, and the effects of a royal mistress. The rest of the time it's typical "religion disapproved, pious queen suffered, money was spent" and so on.
   
   And four of the five have some great quality that sets them apart -- patriotism, intelligence, charm, or just loyal fun. But Lola Montez doesn't fit in. Despite Princess Michael's gushing, she seems like a callous, ditsy gold-digger compared to Madame de Pompadour or Lily Langtry.
   
   Though it doesn't add any new information, "Cupid and the King : Five Royal Paramours" is a pleasant read for people who are looking for juicy pre-tabloid gossip.



3. I thouroughly enjoyed this book. Princess Michael's writing style is chatty and open, and she chose five interesting women to study. It's a great "beach read" for lovers of biographies, history or even royal gossip.

2 comments about Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th century.

1. "Never fall down!"
   
   Roughly translated from the Czech refrain that author Ivan Margolius' resilient mother, Heda Margolius Kovaly, would often exclaim when life in the former Czechoslovakia threw their Margolius clan one too many rotten tomatoes.
   
   Ivan and Heda, of course, are son and wife to the late Rudolf Margolius, a one-time deputy minister in the former Czechoslovakia's Ministry of Trade.
   
   History reveals that on December 3, 1952, Rudolf and ten other falsely-accused -- mostly Jewish -- members of the former Communist government's inner circle were hanged in what has since become known as the "Slansky Affair" or "Slansky Plot." Slansky was a trumped-up list of charges that first Czechoslovak Communist President Klement Gottwald orchestrated against forteen prominent members of his administration.
   
   The Slansky Plot was the culmination of a major part of Gottwald's Stalinist-inspired campaign of terror against the citizens of Czechoslovakia. His aim was to smash them into socialist submission, with Czechoslovakia at the time being the most "Western" of all the newly-established "Bloc" countries.
   
   "Never fall down" became Ivan Margolius' mantra as he returned more than forty years later to the now-democratic Czech Republic to retrace his father's once-shining career's steps. Ivan's search lead him straight into the former Czechoslovak archives. From there it was where the author was successful in clarifying heaps of missing details that had eluded Ivan Margolius for most of his adult life about the life of his famous father.
   
   Until the age of sixteen, Ivan hadn't precisely known the circumstances surrounding his father's passing. Heda, like most of her fellow citizens living under the socialist yoke, dreaded divulging any information about Rudolf Margolius to her lone son, fearful how it might affect his future work and life prospects inside the Communist system.
   
   Featuring prominently in this book are letters. For instance, one is an ambiguously-crafted note Rudolf had penned to his young boy, which reveals shades of the inner-agony that Rudolf and his fourteen co-accused must have felt while awaiting their execution under the libels. It had been kept from author by Heda until well into Ivan's teens.
   
   Since then, Ivan Margolius' life filled with a burning curiosity to truly know of the circumstances surrounding his father's tragic demise. By then, Ivan was already comfortably settled, living in exile in the British capital, London. It built up until he demanded to know just what had really happened to the man he once called 'Tato', Daddy?
   
   Why had Rudolf Margolius been [...] as a "subversive spy" who "had endangered the health of Czechoslovakia's children?"
   
   Were the charges laid against Rudolf Margolius even true?
   
   Heda knew them to be falsehoods, all, yet Ivan just had to know for himself.
   
   What emerged from the author's research was that Rudolf Margolius hardly even knew Rudolf Slansky, one of the Group of Fourteen rounded up in his eponymously-named trial. Rudolf Margolius hardly had a bad bone in his body, with Ivan remembering their times cavorting around the Czech countryside fondly. Rudolf Margolius was a dedicated father, husband, and moreover, as Ivan unearthed, had served the interests of the then-new Czechoslovak "people's republic" with all his heart.
   
   Rudolf Margolius sincerely believed in the bold promises of Lenin-style Marxism. He renounced all claim to his capitalist past from before the War, and after Rudolf's return to Prague from the Dachau concentration camp, he instructed his wife Heda to liquidate all of their parents' former possessions and assets, dedicating the sale's profits to the State; such was the fervour of his dedication to the socialist cause.
   
   Ivan Margolius needed answers to questions he could find only by returning to the sordid past. To the place where his life changed forever, Prague. The book tells that story...
   
   --
   
   
   REFLECTIONS OF PRAGUE is a stunning walk down memory lane. Within a neatly-contained 300pp. of well-structured, sometimes whistful, but mostly evocatively-written narrative, Ivan Margolius finally discovers for himself just who the man once known as his father really was.
   
   Margolius still awaits an official public apology from the present Czech authorities. As inheritors of the government which destroyed the life of his father, it is they who are responsible for issuing a Formal Sorry.
   
   REFLECTIONS, however, is about that and more. It reflects, as its name states, on things such as:
   
   ** What Prague was like during its inter-war years.
   ** What life was like in the capital under Nazi occupation in the Protectorate.
   ** What became of Bohemia and Moravia's 88,000 Jews, more than 47,000 from Prague alone.
   ** Why Communism was such an "attractive" option for Czechs following WWII.
   ** How influential the Soviets were in Czechoslovak affairs, and how they had contributed to the state of terror in early '50s Czechoslovakia.
   
   These broad strokes of Central European history are on full display as Ivan relives his mother and father's pasts.
   
   REFLECTIONS contains anecdotal evidence Ivan had heard from Heda over the years, and makes available his painstaking research into the former Communist state's archives. In his attempt to recreate the atmosphere extant at the time his father death, Margolius succeeds masterfully.
   
   I consider REFLECTIONS to be an essential primer for anyone with more than a passing interest in Czech history.
   
   If you're looking for an easy-to-read book on Prague written by a son of one of its most illustrious families, the Margoliuses, then stop searching. You've found it.
   
   Five stars.



2. This is a tragic memoir of a son whose father was murdered by the Communist regime. The author sets the stage beautifully by giving the history of the Czech nation, the plight of its Jewish population, and the suffering at the hands of the Nazis and Communists. He weaves the story of his family into this history with great skill. As a native Czech who had some similar experiences to those of Ivan Margolius, I particularly appreciated his attention to detail, his accurate and beautiful descriptions of Prague and the Czech countryside, and his use of poetry throughout the book. The reader cannot help but weep for a son who has such deep feelings and who carries with him such deep sorrow for a father whom he knew for only a few very short years. A wonderful book!

No comments about Churchill's Bodyguard: The Authorised Biography of Walter H. Thompson.

No comments about Crossing Hitler: The Man Who Put the Nazis on the Witness Stand.

2 comments about Farewell to Salonica: City at the Crossroads.

1. Farewell To Salonica: City At The Crossroads is the autobiography of Leon Sciaky and tells of his having grown up in Salonica (now called Thessaloniki), in Greece. A remarkable view of a place where Sephardic Jews, Greeks, Turks, Macedonians, Albanians, and Bulgarians all met, traded, and went about their daily lives. A superbly written memoir, Farewell to Salonica is a heartfelt, highly recommended testimony to a memorable city and a cultural mecca.



2. I discovered this book by reading Mazower's book. This was a pure delight to read. The author brought me back to a Thessaloniki I had learned about in Mazower, but added the warm, personal details of family life and interaction among the groups which made up Salonica in the early 20th century. I didn't want the book to end. I was surprised to learn that it had been published quite a while ago and that the author's child added an epilogue. I wish I had read it before and wandered the streets to find some of the landmarks.

5 comments about Nero.

1. Yes, I would agree with the other reviewers that this book does give a good historical depiction of the monster Nero. What the other reviewers fail to recognize is the duplicity in the life of this man (understatement) that the author glosses over i.e. the burning of the Christians at his dinner parties is given just a few passages and then excused. The truth being that Nero was a true monster in any definition of the word. Bred from the loins of a killer to be a killer himself, nonetheless born from a lineage of killers going all the way back to Livia, who without, the history of the empire (republic without her maybe) would have been completely different.
   Why modern writers try to cast emperors such as Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero into a positive, or even neutral, light should be beyond the comprehension of the educated thinker. There are absolutely no excuses for the actions of these human beings and for Champlin to try to do so is irresponsible and he should feel ashamed of himself. I look very forward to his exonoration of the emperor Commodus next.



2. Champlin bravely asserts his own contribution to the great wealth of Neronian scholarship for the critics to pick apart. I find very little to quibble about.
   It is difficult to write even-handedly about Nero for a Western audience. Who could forget the image of a man who "fiddled while Rome burned" or the terrible tyrant who had begun a nearly 170 year "persecution" of the early Christians, under whose reign both Peter and Paul were executed? As other reviewer comments reveal, you can easily earn the brand of a Nero "apologist" if you don't tow the party line, however inaccurate it might be.
   
   Champlin's thesis can be stated simply as follows: many, if not most of Nero's grandstands and outrageous actions, were performed out of considerable political shrewdness and calculation - not the madness or puerile excess wrongly attributed to a "live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse" emperor. Nero's success, Champlin argues in the first chapter, is evinced by a shockingly prolonged "afterlife" manifested in pseudo-Neros, Judeo-Christian apocalyptic writings, and a disenfranchised populace openly lamenting his death. Nonetheless, I cannot help but wonder, (working on the same assumption,) whether he had truly orchestrated his public relations as well as Champlin suggests given his untimely demise at age 30.
   
   Some reviewers disagree, but I reckon Champlin's original Nero-Periander link to be one of the most intriguing ideas among current studies in classical prosopography. The ambivalent relationship with the mother, the Philhellenism, the artistic bent, and the numerous other links are too compelling to ignore outright, even if the conclusion a hard sell. Further research is warranted, but I suspect that Champlin, with his great intellect and energy, may have already exhausted all of the available evidence for advancing his thesis. He demonstrates the Augustus/Antony connections thoroughly. The discussion of the great fire of 64 is arrestingly well done: after convincingly presenting the defense for Nero's innocence, he suddenly shatters the deception in stating that despite this preceding evidence, Nero undoubtedly held direct responsibility for the coflagration. It hits you with dramatic effect almost equal to one of the primary sources comprising the centerpiece of his proof in this sudden reversal: Tacitus' Annales XV.67.
   
   Champlin's organization is somewhat bothersome as it is in "Final Judgments," because he rejects chronological arrangement for thematic foci. This requires repetition of several facts, and I cannot understand his reasons for the chapter order. The post-mortem legacy of Nero, being most fascinating, he puts up front -obviously to hook his reader. It serves as an interesting set piece for further discourse, because the inevitable bewilderment we feel about Nero's impression on the world ever after demands explanation: thus the rest of the book. But with Dio, Suetonius, and Tacitus unfolding the bulk of their own histories so methodically, the rearrangement isn't always a neat fit. Still, Champlin's brilliant weaving together of hundreds of sources, as before, vindicates his literary decisions several times over.
   
   Champlin, like any other historian, has his hypotheses and directs his evidence toward proving them. His presentation however, is replete with past scholarship and primary sources presented candidly and fairly. One of the most appreciable inclusions is the extensive collection of Latin graffiti, which add a critical dimension to our knowledged untouched by any other work on Nero. This book has been for me an introduction into full-strength Neronian scholarship and I found it both accessible and empowering enough to read further with confidence.



3. Nero is the most controversial figure in Western history. He was denounced as the Antichrist by the early Christians and as a disgrace to the imperial throne by the Roman aristocracy. At the same time he was adored by the common people in Italy and the Greek speaking East. Years after his death Nero sightings generated the same excitement Elvis sightings do today. He was the only Roman emperor, and one of the very few historical figures, to pass into the realm of myth. Even today he still fiddles while Rome burns.
   
   In his fascinating, revisionist study of the singing emperor, Champlin reveals a Nero who was a brilliant, learned and enormously energetic young man with a genius for self promotion. He was also a gifted poet and musician whose compositions were popular for centuries after his death at age 30. His passage into the eternal realm was his own doing - he portrayed his role in the death of his mother and wife on stage in the grandiose terms of myth and legend.
   
   Rather than a reclusive megalomaniac who shut himself up in a vast palace which threatened to gobble up Rome, Champlin points out that his notorious Golden House was much closer to a public park and entertainment complex. Nero may not have lived there at all. The psychotic monster of today is the product of two thousand years of hostile spin but the truth still shines through the obscuring mist because the Nero legend was created by an artist.
   
   I have two reservations about this beguiling, illuminating book. After Champlin convinces us that Nero did not set Rome on fire he does a sudden about face. On the basis of a statement by a single defiant conspirator, he concludes that Nero in fact probably did set the city ablaze. Apocalyptic expectation of the imminent cleansing of the world by fire makes it much more likely that Christian zealots were to blame.
   
   My second reservation is that Champlin does not explore the power astrology held over first century Roman minds. Nero's elevation to mythological status was in large part due to his sudden and unexpected suicide which nothing but his blind faith in astrology adequately explains.



4. Nero is a very intriguing story it tells of really young man with agendas probably no one else can explain, but I read someone's review that he was the most controversial figure in Western Civ.., and my mouth dropped,...let me remind you all of a man who was an epoch defining person, as you can see the world before him, and the world after him,.....um oh yeah.....Alexander the Great.



5. This was a too-detailed and academic treatment of Nero, when I wanted a basic popular history. I'm sure a scholar of the Roman Empire and emperors would find this of greater value than I did. Much of what may have been superior scholarship and insights were lost on a plebeian like me!
   
   Of interest to me: Did Nero really fiddle while Rome burned, among the many other atrocious historical events he is accused? Maybe. Apparently he did set the fire, kill his mother and his wife and unborn child (accidentally), according to the author.
   
   --or maybe not. The amazing thing is how sketchy is the historical record on a great Roman leader who lived just after the time of the events recorded in much greater detail in the New Testament Gospels.
   
   --and if he did these things, Nero was probably driven by his desire to place himself within the mythic-historic background of his predecessors.