3.75 ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2765903.html

This is an interesting but somewhat frustrating biography of Alexander the Great. It assumes a better knowledge on the part of the reader than I could summon up from my memories of L. du Garde Peach's Labybird Book on the subject more than forty years ago, hanging a structure of chapters each addressing different themes of Alexander's short life, which necessarily means that the same incidents get cited over and over again from much the same angle. (Alexander as leader, Alexander's sexuality, Alexander as a Greek, Alexander as a Persian ruler, Alexander as a living god among men, etc.) The most interesting chapter was the last, in which Cartledge looks at the difficulties of working out exactly what happened given the diversity of the sources - it reminded me a bit of the digressions on De Selby in The Third Policeman, only for real. I guess I should let fiction fill in where fact is lacking, and finally get to grips wwith Mary Renault. ( )

I hate the way this book is organized and I dislike all of the repetition. I blame both of these problems on the fact he reworked and rewrote a bunch of lectures.

There is some very excellent salty commentary, though, and the supplementary materials in the back are A . ( )

I hate the way this book is organized and I dislike all of the repetition. I blame both of these problems on the fact he reworked and rewrote a bunch of lectures.

There is some very excellent salty commentary, though, and the supplementary materials in the back are A . ( )

Didn't finish it. Too technical and hardcore for my tastes, and the writing is very, "I'm going to continue to mention that we don't actually know what we're talking about when it comes to history", which isn't necessarily a bad thing since history can be so ambiguous, but it doesn't make for interesting reading. If you're going to keep saying that, then at least put in some interesting ideas for what might've actually happened.

This might be a good read for people who want a more in-depth look at Alexander the Great and his entire world (literally), but not for someone who's just interested in his life. ( )