Robert Harris: Imperium (novel)

Robert Harris: British novelist, 7.3.1957-

Imperium: historical novel, first part of a trilogy, published in 2006

I've had this book a long time in my bookshelf, waiting for me to read it. Recently I was many weeks on a sick leave and finally had the time to grab it with my healthy hand (The other one was cracked by the car that ran over me and my bicycle on a crosswalk, uh...)  But luckily, the book was not a disappoinment at all. It tells an eventful story of historical roman person, rhetorician named Cicero, from the viewpoint of his slave named Tiro.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (3.1.106 BC – 7.12.43 BC) was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer and political theorist. Cicero is, by the way, pronounced as 'kikero' (not 'sisero' as I'd always thought). He was also much more than just a rhetorician, which I had always imagined him to be. Earlier, I've read Robert Graves' and Mika Waltari's historical novels taking place in ancient Rome and while Harris' Imperium is also a great book, I'm sad to say it does not reach the level of Graves' "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the god" or Waltari's "The Roman". However, I am not such an expert on the art of novel writing, that I could state indisputable (wanted to learn a new word....) reasons for my opinion. Let me just say, that the persons and events feel somehow impersonal to me, especially compared to Graves' and Waltari's supreme novels. Nevertheless reading this book was a great pleasure and I particularly liked the cultivated tone of the author Harris, disguised as the narrator Tiro. Also the metaphors used by Harris were not bad at all, I think.

The book is meant to be the first part of a trilogy. The second part came out 2009, and it will in top 10 of my famously long and slowly progressing reading list (the slow progress is merely the fault of my employee). So perhaps you will see me write about Harris' "Lustrum" here in few years, at the latest, when I am next time on a sick leave (2018 that probably is). Meanwhile, tell me do you share my opinion of Harris', Graves' and Waltari's novels rank order and if so, can you point out the details, that make Graves' and Waltari's novels superior to Harris'. I myself,  can not.

Blocker's Verdict: 3/5

Word of the day: Indisputable = Not disputable; not open to question; obviously true.