Julian
On sale
23rd September 1993
Price: £14.99
Gore Vidal’s fictional recreation of the Roman Empire teetering on the crux of Christianity and ruled by an emperor who was an inveterate dabbler in arcane hocus-pocus, a prig, a bigot, and a dazzling and brilliant leader.
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Reviews
Historical fiction in the true, honorable sense... Full of vivid, richly wrought fictional detail
A brilliant study of Julian's era. . . . That rare historical novel which enjoys all the virtues of good history and good fiction
Simply great... A truly monumental novel
Impressive. . . . To the formidable task which Vidal sets himself, he brings an easy and fluent gift for narrative; a theatrical sense of scene and dramatic occasion; and a revealing eye and ear for character delineation-to say nothing of wide reading
No odder figure ever guided the destinies of the Roman Empire than the Emperor Julian Augustus. Here was a recluse and a scholar who became a great military leader, an ascetic who preached the life of the senses, a fatalist who believed he would remake the world. . . . He is endlessly fascinating
A real hero... An excellent book
A beautifully persuasive historical tale, a poignant portrait of the Emperor Julian
Gore Vidal has the sharpest sense of what political power consists of, how it is achieved and what it does to a man. And at the same time he is funny, roaringly funny. . . . Julian is a brilliant beacon of light in the dim grey landscape of the historical novel
High entertainment