Claudius The God And His Wife Messalina (1989) - Plot & Excerpts
CLÁUDIUS, O DEUS - Robert Graves | Como Sobreviver no Comando do Império Romano! | NITROLEITURAS #resenhaUm clássico dos romances históricos e tão revolucionário quanto EU, CLÁUDIO. Apesar de não ser tão dramático quanto o antecessor, essa sequência é também uma obra prima da ficção histórica contemporânea. Enquanto em EU,CLÁUDIO o tema unificador é a sobrevivência fora de uma posição de poder, CLÁUDIO, O DEUS é sobre a sobrevivência quando se está em uma posição de poder.O livro descreve, em primeira pessoa, os acontecimentos após a morte de Calígula e a ascenção de Cláudio como Imperador de Roma. Além da trajetória de Cláudio, Robert Graves também descreve a ascenção ao poder de Herod Agrippa, rei dos Judeus, e o modo como suas vidas estão intercaladas.Tendo terminado a leitura de CLÁUDIO, O DEUS, considero os dois volumes um único livro. O estilo da prosa é o mesmo, com Cláudio narrando em primeira pessoa e colocando seu ponto de vista e seus comentários dos acontecimentos, explicando suas motivações e ilustrando o leitor com detalhes peculiares do mundo romano do primeiro século DC.Conspirações palacianas, conspirações das cortes do Oriente, assassinatos, envenenamentos, e personagens inesquecíveis tornam a leitura das mais deliciosas. Em um romance desse tipo, muitas páginas são dedicadas à exposição, mas Graves tem uma prosa belíssima e cheia de humor e inteligência, e a informação passada é fascinante. Nunca imaginei que o mundo antigo fosse tão complexo e ambíguo quanto o nosso mundo contemporâneo.Meu personagem favorito, além de Cláudius, foi Herodes, o rei dos Judeus, uma espécie de Han Solo do mundo antigo, que, ao modo de Caligula, meio que enlouqueceu no final de sua vida quando botou na cabeça que era o Messias, e quase organizou uma guerra tremenda contra a ocupação romana dos territórios da Síria e Palestina. Só essa saga épica já vale o livro, mas deixaria de fora a história de Messalina, a manipuladora e venenosa esposa de Cláudio.Um livro fascinante e de leitura obrigatória para quem curte romances históricos!RECOMENADO PARA QUEM:Curte romances históricos.Curte a história de Império Romano.Curte histórias com conspirações, traições, disputas de poder, ação, sangue, violência e vingança para todos os lados.Curte uma prosa bem escrita e deliciosa de ler.Curte romances em primeira pessoa.É fã de Bernard CornwellCLÁUDIUS, O DEUS - Robert Graves Kindle Edition 2006, Penguin, 452 pgs - 1ed 1934Período de Leitura: 01.08.2015 a 07.08.2015SINOPSEDando continuidade à saga dos Cláudios, o livro Cláudio, o Deus é o segundo e último volume do romance de Robert Graves sobre a história da notória família de imperadores romanos. Embora obra de ficção, ela proporciona muitas informações sobre o funcionamento do estado romano, o grau de cultura alcançado nessa civilização e, sobretudo, é uma análise impiedosa sobre a conquista do poder absoluto e as terríveis conseqüências que ele invariavelmente desencadeia.Tibério Cláudio César, um aleijado, gago e um presumível tolo, descendente de Augusto, vai se tornar Imperador dos romanos, e surpreendentemente realizará conquistas marcantes. Este é o tema central deste segundo volume, que nos conta as intrigas palacianas, as conspirações de um senado quase sempre corrupto e subserviente, os acordos e os amores lascivos dos personagens, que ansiavam pela permanência no poder, pontuados pelos atos heróicos de comandantes e soldados profissionalmente treinados para a conquista.É um verdadeiro acerto de contas que Cláudio promove com sua época e, ao deixá-lo registrado para a posteridade, permitiu que escritores como Robert Graves desvendassem os acontecimentos que marcaram o destino da dinastia dos Cláudios. Dinastia criada por personagens marcantes como Otávio Augusto e sua ambiciosa mulher Lívia; Tibério, que deu vitórias e derrotas para Roma e que morreu para o proveito de seu filho Calígula, por sua vez o responsável por instaurar um regime de loucura e terror enquanto esteve vivo.BONUS STAGE!Algumas informações sobre o fantástico ROBERT GRAVESRobert Graves nasceu em 1895 em Wimbledon, sendo filho de Alfred Perceval Graves, escritor irlandês, e de Amalia Von Ranke. Saiu da escola para alistar-se na Primeira Guerra Mundial, tornando-se capitão no Royal Welch Fusiliers – corpo de fuzileiros reais galeses.A sua vocação primordial foi a poesia, e o seu livro Selected Poems tem sido publicado nas séries de clássicos do século XX. A não ser pelo ano que passou como professor de literatura inglesa na Universidade do Cairo, em 1926, ganhou sua vida como escritor, principalmente de romances históricos, entre os quais estão incluídos: I Claudius; Claudius the God; Count Belisarius; Wife to Mr. Milton; Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth; Proceed, Sergeant Lamb; The Golden Fleece; They Hanged My Saintly Billy; e The Isles of Unwisdom.Escreveu sua autobiografia, Goodbye to All That, em 1929, livro rapidamente consagrado como um clássico moderno. O The Times Literary Suplement aclamou essa obra como “um dos mais cândidos auto-retratos de um poeta, com verrugas e tudo o mais, jamais pintados”, reconhecendo-a também como um documento de excepcional valor sobre a guerra.Seus dois livros mais polêmicos de não-ficção são The White Goddess, que apresenta uma visão nova do impulso poético, e The Nazarene Gospel Restored (escrito em parceria com Joshua Podro), um re-exame do primitivo cristianismo. Traduziu Apuleio, Lucano e Suetônio para as séries clássicas da editora inglesa Penguin, e compilou o primeiro dicionário moderno de mitologia grega, The Greek Myths.Onde Comprar:Amazon (Inglês)Estante Virtual (Português)PRÓXIMA LEITURA:THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK - Douglas Stone e Sheila Heen329 pgs. Penguin Books (2014) - Kindle EditionUm livro que comecei a ler de bobeira e que, de repente, se tornou IMPORTANTÍSSIMO, pois aprender a receber FEEDBACK dos leitores, editores, revisores, etc. é VITAL para qualquer escritor! Estou curtindo muito o livro, e assim que terminar coloco minhas anotações aqui!E vamos ler porque ler é doidimais!
Claudius The God, a novel by Robert Graves, is the sequel to" I, Claudius", and it takes up the story from the point when Claudius was acclaimed as emperor. Where the first novel covered the reign of Caesar Augustus as well as those of Tiberius and Caligula, the sequel is longer but mostly restricts itself to the thirteen-year reign of Claudius, the narrator.There is a rather long section early in the novel that tells the story of Claudius' friend Herod Agrippa, who helps and encourages Claudius in his first few months of being the new emperor. In some ways I should have enjoyed Claudius The God more than I, Claudius. Finally with Claudius we have a good, well better than any other emperor. After all I don't think he poisons anyone in the entire book, which was amazing in itself after the first book. He does seem to enjoy, or at least not to be bothered by, people getting killed in the arena games though which bugged me. And the story of Herod Agrippa was very interesting, most of it anyway, and I was always looking for references to Jesus or any of the early Christians (yes they were in there). So I should have enjoyed it more, but I didn't.To me the first book was filled with story. Story of people's lives. Granted they were crazy people running around poisoning or starving each other, but it was a story of the people. This seemed more of a instruction manual for Roman life. I learned so much about Roman life and of how the Romans really viewed the world around them, including their conquered territories and provinces. I learned way too much about it at times. He is telling me at one point that Galba burned one hundred and fifty stockaded villages, destroyed thousand of acres of crops, killed great number of Germans, took two thousand prisoners, lost twelve hundred men, its a long list of who did what. Galbinius meanwhile loses only eight hundred men, burns the timber shrines, destroys crops, village, and takes two thousand prisoners. And there are lots more generals and lots more burning and killing lists. Then there's lists of roads being laid, aqueducts and buildings being built, especially temples, every god I ever heard of and a lot I never heard of had their own temple. How he changed the alphabet by making three more letters, got quite a few pages although I'm still not sure why he insisted on changing the alphabet in the first place. But a lot of things like this slowed the action down to a crawl at times, then suddenly it would pick up again and I would be so interested, then back down to the crawl again.There are lots of other characters in the book, and they all act exactly like the people in the first book acted, like Romans I guess. His wife Messalina is an absolutely horrible person, but so are his other wives and just about every other important woman in both books. I found Herod's letter to Claudius about Jesus fascinating, in one section he says,"And there are now people who say that he was God and that they saw his soul ascend to Heaven after his death-just like Augustus's and Drusilla's-and claim that he was born at Bethlehem and that he fulfilled all the other Messianic prophecies in one way or another; but I propose to stop this nonsense once and for all. Only three days ago I arrested and executed James, who seems to be the chief intellect of the movement; I hope to recapture and execute another leading fanatic called Simon, arrested at the same time, who somehow escaped from prison."The book was worth reading, I think you would have to read I, Claudius first though, and it won't be for everyone, but I'd say to give it a try. Of course I say that about every book. :-}
What do You think about Claudius The God And His Wife Messalina (1989)?
Since my college days I didn’t know Robert Graves and told myself I wouldn’t read him at all due to his formidable writing style as a Greek scholar till I finally decided to try reading his amazing memoir “Goodbye to All That” from which I regarded as my first step toward his other works. Surprisingly, the more I read him, the more I found his narration informative, rewarding and sometime humorous. However, if you’re interested in reading this historical novel, you should read his “I, Claudius” first because this one is its sequel. One of the obstacles is that this paperback (Penguin, 2006), I think, is not reader-friendly due to its relatively small fonts; it’s a pity I can’t find any information in this volume on the font size used in publishing this book, therefore, the elderly might find reading its 32 chapters, 443 pages probably tedious, invaluable and unamused. However, one may wonder how he’s miraculously imagined and written on something so ancient that we nowadays simply can’t visualize or speak reasonably, let alone descriptively or substantially on a required topic. Supported by his powerful description, this excerpt on Britain would, I think, prove his expertise as one of the admirable writers on historical fiction.BRITAIN lies in the northerly position, but the climate, though very damp, is not nearly so cold as one would expect; if properly drained the country could be made extremely fruitful. The aboriginal inhabitants, a small, dark-haired people, were dispossessed about the time that Rome was found, by an invasion of Celts from the south-east. Some still maintain themselves independently in small settlements in inaccessible mountains or marshes; the rest became serfs and mixed their blood with that of their conquerors. … (p. 211)Moreover, some might be eager to read on his campaign there and, for instance, this extracted part should suffice:… The enemy bank was defended by two strong stockades, and the Britons, who now harassed the workers with arrows and insults, were building a third one behind that. Twice a day a huge tide welled up into the river mouth – a commonplace in this part of the world, though never seen in the Mediterranean, except during storms – and hindered Aulus’s work greatly. But he was counting on the tide as his ally. … The struggle was a fierce one, and the British detachments posted higher up the stream, to prevent our men from crossing at any point there, came charging down to take part in the fight. Aulus saw what was happening, and detailed the Second under a certain Vespasian to go upstream under cover of a forest and cross over at some now unguarded bend. … Once over, they hurried downstream, meeting none of the enemy as they went, and an hour later suddenly appeared on the enemy’s unprotected right flank. They locked shields, shouted, and burst right through to the stockade, killing hundreds of British tribesmen in a single charge. … (p. 238)
—umberto
It's a shame that Messalina is such a pretty name, because she was such a vile person. Sometimes I wonder if this book is rampantly misogynist on purpose, or if that just a reflection of the source material Robert Graves had to work with. And then I wonder if the source material is full of such horrible women because there really was such a crop of scheming imperial jezebels, or if the historians were merely reflecting the deeply-entrenched anti-woman sentiments of their time.And then I remember that today's young classicists of both genders seem to do a pretty good job of fighting the patriarchy. And that we will all probably raise a feisty feminist crop of Medeas and Philomelas and Messalinas. And I get back to enjoying the ridiculous melodramatic Roman soap opera starring the lovable teddy bear Claudius because it is SO GOOD and SO FUN. And I am a giant nerd.
—Jennie
I loved the chance to hear the actor Derek Jacobi from the TV production of “I, Claudius” do the reading of this sequel. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the audiobook was an abridged edition of the book until the end. That accounts for the disappointing compression in the narratives. Still, it was a pleasure to experience highlights in the reign of this survivor of all the murders associated with the succession of his uncle Calligula. He succeed by pretending to be an idiot. This presented a problem establishing credibility and respect after he assumes leadership of the Roman Empire at its peak.Early in his tenure, we see him coming to terms with having to fight back hard against his enemies. It was hard to take his choices to execute some of these adversaries, especially when we learn how gullible Claudius is to manipulation. The conquering of a big chunk of tribal England was a fun part of the tale. He gets a chance to prove himself as commander in chief by applying his book learning on warfare. He calls for a trick of a simulated giant heron to spook sentries in their sneak attack. For shock and awe, he pushes his generals to do the hard work of transporting elephants to the battle. Their ability to trample through otherwise impenetrable brush allows them to flank their enemies and freak them out. The book is an emulation of a history, so it misses out on some of the engagement of a more realistic narrative flow, replete with lively dialog. Because of foreshadowing, the events of his reign selected for focus have framing like a Greek tragedy. As a child tutored by a Greek philosopher, he bonded with a boy Herrod Agrippa, who always admonished him to trust no one. That message comes back to haunt him where it comes to his wife Messalina, who betrayed him in ways he could never recover from. The irony of Herrod himself betraying him by seeking to carve out Egypt and the Far East from his empire was easier to accept. All in all, this was a satisfying saga of the rare case of lovable and largely just supreme ruler and a meticulous and believable rendering of life at the top in the Roman Empire. I can’t speak of the value of all the parts missed in this abridged edition, but it was not as pleasurable as “I, Claudius.”
—Michael
