Category: Historical Fiction
Short Story: The Princess of Egypt Must Die by Stephanie Dray
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Princess Arsinoe came of age in the glittering court of Ptolemaic Egypt. Abused by her ruthless sister, a pawn in the dynastic ambitions of her father, and dismissed by the king who claimed her for a bride, young Arsinoe finds herself falling in love with a young man forbidden to her. She dreams of a destiny as Egypt’s queen, but first she must survive the nest of vipers otherwise known as her family.
There are so many reasons to love The Princess of Egypt Must Die, but one of the main ones is because of Arsinoe herself. She goes from poor naive princess of Egypt to forgotten bride of an ancient man to the mature, ruthless woman she would be known as later in life. All of this happens in quite a short time span, but at least her story arc is believable.
Arsinoe starts out as the political pawn for her father’s ambitions. She is married off to Lysimachus, the King of Thrace who was one of Alexander the Great’s bodyguards. It takes a little more time than I would like to know this because it actually establishes the timeline here. Throughout the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, there were many Arsinoes so having this information introduced a little sooner would have been nice, but it’s not a major issue by any means. Once you realize the world that Arsinoe is living in is harsh and cruel and only going to get worse, it makes you want to read on. Of course her much older husband virtually ignores her and Arsinoe can’t help but fall in love with Cassander, who is as tragic a love interest as they get. His decision at the end of the short story is absolutely heartbreaking, as is Arsinoe’s.
Despite the short length of this novel I really did grow attached to the characters. Both Arsinoe and Cassander felt very real to me and I could believe in their ready attraction. Of course the plot being relatively fast-paced helps the story move along but there’s still plenty of attention devoted to character development. This is my first sample of Stephanie Dray’s writing and I have to say I was pretty impressed with her style. She knows how to describe just enough of her surroundings to be informative, but also knows not to drag on and on with such descriptions. Her writing is addictive and I guarantee I’ll be reading more of her in the future.
I give this short story 4/5 stars.
Short Story: Caesar’s Ambassador by Alex Johnston
(Cover picture courtesy of The Masquerade Crew.)
“He was a salesman of Rome. Honor him.”
Apologies to you Gladiator fans. Marcus Mettius may or may not have been a trader in real life. In Julius Caesar’s masterpiece, Caesar’s Commentaries: On The Gallic War and On The Civil War, he only mentions Marcus twice, once to point out that he sent him as ambassador to the German king Ariovistus because Marcus “…had shared the hospitality of Ariovistus.” Sounds like a salesman to me.
Marcus should be honored. He played an important role in one of the greatest historical dramas of all time, Caesar’s conquest of Gaul.
Caesar sent his Gallic interpreter, Gaius Valerius Troucillus, and Marcus to act as ambassadors to Ariovistus. They were both taken captive, and Gaius at least was threatened with being burned at the stake (it’s not clear from reading the Commentaries whether Marcus was also so threatened). Caesar goes on and on about Gaius, writing that he is a “young man of the highest courage and accomplishments.” And when Caesar personally rescues him on the battlefield he writes that this act “afforded Caesar no less pleasure than the victory itself; because he saw a man of the first rank in the province of Gaul, his intimate acquaintance and friend, rescued from the hand of the enemy, and restored to him, and …” Marcus? Oh yeah, “M. Mettius, also, was found and brought back to him [Caesar].
In my opinion, Julius Caesar does not give Marcus his due, so I filled in the gaps. Join him as he outwits a German witch, tells Julius Caesar (and others) stupid salesman jokes, parties with Gauls and slaves, watches Caesar’s troops freak out at a bar, and much, much more. He is a soldier of a different kind – a man who lives by his wits. Honor him.
Caesar’s Ambassador was certainly not what I expected, but that’s definitely in a good way. I expected the usual dry historical retelling of a minor character, not the hilarious escapades of a snarky, sarcastic salesman who played a part in the conquest of Gaul but never really got his due.
I think Alex Johnston intentionally used modern phrases and attitudes to make Marcus a bit easier to understand for modern readers. He does this with great humour as Marcus tells dumb blonde jokes, salesman jokes, drinks and marches along with Caesar’s army around Gaul. Marcus may have found himself a diplomat by accident, but I still love that Alex Johnston made him a salesman at heart. His take on the German situation as he and his friend Gaius are in chains waiting for a soothsayer to determine whether they should live or die is hilarious. There are some serious moments in the story, but overall the tone is humorous.
Alex Johnston brings historical figures like Marcus and Julius Caesar to life in his short story and makes them just a little more human. Marcus is, of course, a salesman at heart. Caesar is a soldier’s best friend but also reveals his ruthless streak to Marcus, who is both chummy with Caesar and wary of him. It’s hard to get much characterization into a short story, but Alex Johnston certainly succeeded in making all of his characters three dimensional.
The plot doesn’t fly along at breakneck speed, but neither does it drag along. With lots of humour along the way as well as fascinating historical details, you can’t go wrong with Caesar’s Ambassador. There are some modern phrases Marcus uses throughout the story, but I suspect that was deliberate on the part of the author. Overall, Caesar’s Ambassador is just a fun historical romp that fills in some of the gaps in the life of a bit player of Roman politics.
I give this short story 5/5 stars.
Harem by Colin Falconer
(Cover picture courtesy of History and Women.)
He had everything a man might dream of; wealth, power and the choice of hundreds of the most beautiful women in his Empire.
Why then did the King of Kings, Possessor of Mens Necks, forsake his harem for the love of just one woman, and marry her in defiance of the centuries-old code of the Osmanlis?
This is the astonishing story of Suleiman, the one they called the Magnificent, and the woman he loved. From medieval Venice to the slave markets of Algiers, from the mountains of Persia to the forbidden seraglio of the Ottoman’s greatest sultan, this is a story of passion and intrigue in a world where nothing is really as it seems.
This is more the tale of three very different women than the tale of Suleiman, but the thought is definitely there. We hear not only from him, but from the three women the story focuses on: Hürrem, Gülbehar and Julia.
First off we get the story of Hürrem’s rise to power within the harem. Since Suleiman truly loved Gülbehar, she used every trick in the book to steal him away from his favourite. Like so many stories that take place in the harem, the ladies in here are not necessarily sympathetic, but they are interesting. No one can deny Hürrem is a forceful person that will do anything, including kill, to gain power. Most of the book is from her perspective, although we do see things from Gülbehar’s perspective as she watches as she’s displaced as Suleiman’s favourite, knowing she can do nothing about it.
While Hürrem’s story was the main focus and it was fascinating, the story of Julia, the Italian who is captured and taken to the harem as a concubine is my favourite. We don’t see her until the last part of the story, but she is my absolute favourite character and couldn’t be a more stark contrast to the scheming, sometimes sadistic Hürrem. Her story and that of poor, poor Abbas are inexplicably entwined and how their story is resolved is both heartbreaking and happy.
I can’t and certainly won’t comment on the historical accuracy of Harem. In his author’s note, Colin Falconer admits that the three main women in the novel and their actions are pretty much pure speculation but that Suleiman was of course a very real person. Seeing as I know essentially nothing about Suleiman’s empire, I also won’t comment on the day-to-day minor historical details either. I will note that I don’t think Colin Falconer’s main objective with this novel was to be as historically accurate as possible, meaning he likely gave himself a little wiggle room when it came to details.
My only real complaint about the novel is that for such a good book, the proofreading was not so great. There were your vs. you’re mistakes sometimes and simple proofreading errors that looked like typos (lanbguage instead of language). There weren’t so many that it detracted from the story, but just keep in mind that they are there.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Short Story: Boxed in a Curse by Luciana Cavallaro
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
She was created by the gods as a gift to humanity. Then there was the urn.
Pandora, the first woman on Earth, was endowed with many gifts: beauty, intelligence, domesticity, and curiosity. She was at once lover, sympathiser and nurturer. Zeus presented an urn as her wedding dowry. Neither she nor her husband, Epimethos knew what it contained inside, and Hermes, the Messenger, warned them never to open it.
So the story goes… according to Grandpa.
Two precocious children visit their grandfather and beg him to tell a story. It wasn’t ‘on a dark and stormy night’ or ‘once upon a time’ type of story either.
[Full disclosure: Luciana Cavallaro sent me a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
Unlike the other two stories about famous Greek women that I’ve read by Luciana Cavallaro, we don’t get to hear Pandora’s story from her own lips. That’s why I was initially a little apprehensive about reading her newest short story, but I was worried over absolutely nothing. Despite hearing a second hand account of her life, Pandora came across as yet another strong woman who was given the short end of the stick in later stories.
Although I’m an avid fan of Greek mythology and have been for many years, I actually learned a lot from Boxed in a Curse. The Pandora myth was never very detailed and I love how Luciana Cavallaro researched for more details as well as added in her own believable ones. Instead of accepting the ‘she was just really curious’ version of events, she delved deeper into the myth and peeled away the theme of ‘women are evil’ that’s found quite a bit in Greek myths. No, Pandora is not evil or just curious. She was a complex woman who really didn’t know how to act in a world full of men but was still intelligent and strong.
Told through the eyes of a grandfather telling his grandchildren the story, we’re really transported back to that ancient time when humanity was new. It doesn’t really feel like we’re being told what’s happening, but rather it’s described very well and the narrator allows us to draw our own conclusions about the ‘moral’ of the story and about Pandora’s character. Does all of the blame for humanity’s ills lie squarely at her feet? Of course not! I don’t want to give too much away, but after reading Boxed in a Curse you’ll definitely have more sympathy for the first woman.
I give this short story 5/5 stars.
Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the much-awaited sequel to Sandra Gulland’s highly acclaimed first novel, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Beginning in Paris in 1796, the saga continues as Josephine awakens to her new life as Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte. Through her intimate diary entries and Napoleon’s impassioned love letters, an astonishing portrait of an incredible woman emerges. Gulland transports us into the ballrooms and bedrooms of exquisite palaces and onto the blood-soaked fields of Napoleon’s campaigns. As Napoleon marches to power, we witness, through Josephine, the political intrigues and personal betrayals — both sexual and psychological — that result in death, ruin, and victory for those closest to her.
After hearing about her incredible early years, in Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe focuses on Josephine’s most well-known years. And although she has gained a sort of infamous reputation from her supposedly numerous affairs while Bonaparte was in Egypt, this is not the way Sandra Gulland portrays her. You know what? This portrayal feels much more real, more authentic than the typical ‘immortal cheating harlot’ angle that Josephine is always portrayed from. In Gulland’s portrayal, we get to see how Josephine gradually does begin to care for Napoleon, how she soothes over the men in power so her husband may succeed and how she does her best to take care of her only two children by her first husband.
Although I think pacing isn’t as important in historical fiction, this second book in the Josephine B. trilogy is more fast-paced than the first. Perhaps it’s because I actually know a little about the events that occur in the novel or perhaps it’s because it was Gulland’s second book and she got a better feel for pacing. Who knows? All I know is that the pacing and even the quality of writing, which was already high, has improved.
Not only does Josephine come off as an incredibly strong woman, the other characters in the novel really popped out of the pages as well. Napoleon Bonaparte is portrayed in many different ways in movie, television and books but I’ve never really seen this portrayal of him: the awkward, graceless (yet handsome) Corsican who has no time for the nonsense of high society and who is oddly paranoid about poisoning. Having him around is a huge contrast to Josephine, who is graceful and takes to high society, even if she isn’t comfortable with it deep down. Bonaparte’s bizarre, ruthless family definitely doesn’t make it easy on poor Josephine or even Bonaparte himself! Having them around definitely added drama, but it’s not like they were the stereotypically evil in-laws because they had depth. They had real reasons for their actions, thank goodness.
I give this book 5/5 stars.