Augustus著者John Edward Williams

Augustus (1972) is the 4th novel by John Edward Williams, originally published by Viking Press. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1973. As the title suggest, it is a historical fiction about Gaius Octavius, later to be known as Augusts, the first emperor of Rome. The book is a superb recreation of life in Rome as Augustus comes to power. It is written by presenting letters, journal entries, and memoirs which allows for user to ease into the story even without prior knowledge of Roman history. What sets this book apart though is Williams's ability to craft a character. Despite portraying the man in such a grand backdrop of history, Augustus remains utterly imperfect and all too human amongst his family and peers. Much like in his prior novel Stoner, Williams succeeds in portraying a curious gap between one man's public profile and inner persona and the inconsistency of motivations that drives them.


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Product Description - Random House
A 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.