JULIUS CAESAR: A Political Biography

by J. P. V. D. Balsdon ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 1967

His head brimming with heroic fantasies, the young narrator of Sherwood Anderson's The Triumph of the Egg imagined the massing of Caesar's victorious troops. He had recently read the words of the great emperor himself. Had he read instead J. P. V. D. Balsdon's biography of Caesar, he would surely have turned his mind to the adventures of Tom Swift. For this book is so dull that one leaves it wondering how Caesar made any impression upon Plutarch, Shakespeare, or, for that matter, small boys. Mr. Balsdon's book is as dry as Caesar's bones. Originally published in England as one of the volumes in the ""Teach Yourself History"" series, the book is intended for the general reading public. While the English ""common reader"" may still be the product of a classical education, the book's American publishers forget that in most American schools the world was created in 1492. Without wide reading in classical history, the American reader will find this book relatively useless. The author's prose is needlessly complex and disorganized; the result of this hybrid academic prose is a uniformly tedious book, meaningful only to other academicians.

Pub Date: April 21, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION