The Confessions of Young Nero, Margaret George, Berkley, 2017, 506 pp
It has been a while since I read Margaret George. I have read three of her earlier historical novels and found them a highly palatable way of learning old, old history. (Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles, The Memoirs of Cleopatra, and The Autobiography of Henry VIII.) She likes to dig deep and correct historical misperceptions about these larger-than-life characters who left indelible effects on history.
She attempts to do the same for Nero, a later emperor of the Roman Empire, best known for fiddling while Rome burned. This volume will have a sequel as it covers only the first half of Nero's life, ending with the fire that left Rome a heap of cinders.
Nero was descended from Julius Caesar due to a circuitous family tree that owed much to famous murders and remarriages in the tumultuous ways of empire and power. It opens with an instance of Caligula trying to drown Nero when he was only six and follows his childhood as his ambitious and lethal mother employs a renowned poisoner to do away with anyone who stands in the way of her son becoming Emperor.
She succeeds in placing him as such when he is only sixteen. Nero continues in her tradition, eventually having his own mother murdered! It is a bloody tale in which Margaret George tries to show how a young man who loves chariot racing and the arts embraces the role of power while trying to bring culture to a decadent Rome.
She is a smooth writer, foregoing long sentences and using only enough description to bring the times and locales to life. However, this time I felt a bit disappointed in an almost too simplistic rendering of a complex man. She certainly makes Nero a sympathetic character, as she did with Mary, Cleopatra, and Henry, but in those earlier books she somehow did a better job (at least in my recollection) of bringing the full personality of those rulers to life. I cried when Mary, Queen of Scots died. I wished I could have met Cleopatra. I almost forgave Henry VIII for killing so many wives.
Perhaps part of the problem was that Nero's worst deeds are still ahead of him and I will feel more satisfied when I read the sequel. I read this for a reading group and all the other members loved it. I don't argue that she makes history easy to assimilate and does her research with competence. It could be that Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy (still waiting for that third volume coming out next year) spoiled me for this kind of historical writing.
(The Confessions of Young Nero is available in various formats by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)
I'll be reading this one after I finish with The Twelve Caesars, just to compare.
ReplyDeleteGreat! I am very interested in your comparison.
DeleteJust remember you won't be getting the whole story from George though until the second volume comes out.
DeleteI read her Cleopatra book a few years ago and enjoyed it. She does have a knack for presenting history to her readers painlessly and, from what I know of her work, her books seem well-researched. If she can make Nero a sympathetic character, she is indeed a wizard!
ReplyDeleteYes but I wonder if he will still be sympathetic in the sequel because I think he got pretty brutal later. We will see!
DeleteI read this earlier in the year and I was also a bit disappointed in her portrayal of Nero. I'll still be looking out for the sequel, but I'm really more interested in reading the Mary, Queen of Scots book.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know I am not alone. Mary, Queen of Scots was my favorite.
DeleteI'll give one of her books a go. He kills his own mother? It sounds like Rome. We were watching a TV series recently on Commodus and he did away with his sister, who albeit was plotting to kill him. Here's an interesting list I came upon of the most brutal Roman emperors: http://listverse.com/2010/05/09/top-10-worst-roman-emperors/
ReplyDeleteGeorge's books are loooong, but make good reading.
DeleteI checked out your list. Thanks! I learned about each of those in Will Durant's Caesar and Christ. The later ones sure did get off on killing Christians as well as each other. But the Christians won out in the end!