Classics Alive
Discover timeless literary treasures with Classics Alive. Explore our curated list of must-read classic books that continue to inspire and captivate readers worldwide.
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Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Translated by Stanley F Conrad. Set around the dawn of Christianity with amazing historical accuracy Quo Vadis? won Sienkiewicz the Nobel Prize. Written nearly a century ago and translated into over 40 languages, Quo Vadis, has been the greatest best-selling novel in the history of literature. Now in a sparkling new translation which restores the original glory and splendour of this masterpiece, W S Kuniczak, the most acclaimed translator of Sienkiewicz in this century, combines his special knowledge of Sienkiewicz's fiction with his own considerable talents as a novelist. An epic saga of love, courage and devotion in Nero's time, Quo Vadis portrays the degenerate days leading to the fall of the Roman Empire and the glory and the agony of early Christianity.
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I, Claudius
by Robert Graves
Considered an idiot because of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived the intrigues and poisonings of the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and the Mad Caligula to become emperor in 41 A.D. A masterpiece.
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Claudius the God
by Robert Graves
A modern classic of historical fiction written in the form of Claudius's autobiography. Claudius the God is the second part of Robert Graves's two-part account of the life of Tiberius Claudius, "the cripple, the stammerer, the fool of the family" who became Emperor of Rome in spite of himself in 41 A.D. With the same crystalline brilliance that characterizes its classic antecedent, Claudius the God evokes the vitality, splendor, and decadence of Imperial Rome at the beginning of its decline. It is not only a superb re-creation of a colorful moment in history but, through the eyes of the bemused and wry emperor, a compelling and ironic account of human nature as well.
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The Ides of March
by Thornton Wilder
Drawing on such unique sources as Thornton Wilder's unpublished letters, journals, and selections from the extensive annotations Wilder made years later in the margins of the book, Tappan Wilder's Afterword adds a special dimension to the reissue of this internationally acclaimed novel. The Ides of March, first published in 1948, is a brilliant epistolary novel set in Julius Caesar's Rome. Thornton Wilder called it "a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic." Through vividly imagined letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of history's most magnetic, elusive personalities. In this inventive narrative, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being. Wilder also resurrects the controversial figures surrounding Caesar -- Cleopatra, Catullus, Cicero, and others. All Rome comes crowding through these pages -- the Rome of villas and slums, beautiful women and brawling youths, spies and assassins.
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Julian
by Gore Vidal
The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels. Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Roman Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshipping the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with Christianity that provoked his murder at the age of thirty-two, only four years into his brilliantly humane and compassionate reign. A marvelously imaginative and insightful novel of classical antiquity, Julian captures the religious and political ferment of a desperate age and restores with blazing wit and vigor the legacy of an impassioned ruler.
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The Gods of War
by Conn Iggulden
Conclusion of the trilogy that began with "The Field of swords" and continued with "The Gates of Rome". Caesar is preparing to lead his troops across the Rubicon River to confront his last rival for supreme power.
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Emperor
by Conn Iggulden
This critically acclaimed novel takes the reader on a breathtaking journey from the grandeur of Rome to the savagery of its most far-flung provinces, as one of history's greatest narratives unfolds.
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Emperor
by Conn Iggulden
Follows Julius Caesar as he leaves Rome and forges a path across Europe and into Britain.
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Emperor
by Conn Iggulden
After being captured and ransomed by pirates and left to seek revenge on foreign soil, Julius Caesar is reunited with his lifelong friend, Marcus Brutus, to protect the city of Rome from an uprising led by rebel slave Spartacus.
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Memoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar
Both an exploration of character and a reflection on the meaning of history, Memoirs of Hadrian has received international acclaim since its first publication in France in 1951. In it, Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world, writing with the imaginative insight of a great writer of the twentieth century while crafting a prose style as elegant and precise as those of the Latin stylists of Hadrian's own era.
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The King Must Die
by Mary Renault
In this ambitious, ingenious narrative, celebrated historical novelist Mary Renault take legendary hero Theseus and spins his myth into a fast-paced and exciting story. Renault starts with Theseus' early years, showing how the mystery of his father's identity and his small stature breed the insecurities that spur his youthful hijinx. As he moves on to Eleusis, Athens, and Crete, his playfulness and fondness for pranks matures into the courage to attempt singular heroic feats, the gallantry and leadership he was known for on the battlefield, and the bold-hearted ingenuity he shows in navigating the labyrinth and slaying the Minotaur. In what is perhaps the most inventive of all her novels of Ancient Greece, Renault casts Theseus in a surprisingly original pose; she teases the flawed human out of the bronze hero, and draws the plausible out of the fantastic.
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The Bull from the Sea
by Mary Renault
Following on from The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea reconstructs the legend of Theseus, the valiant youth who slew the Minotaur, became king and brought prosperity to Attica. Chief among his heroic exploits is the seduction of Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons.
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The Last of the Wine
by Mary Renault
In The Last of the Wine, two young Athenians, Alexias and Lysis, compete in the palaestra, journey to the Olympic games, fight in the wars against Sparta, and study under Socrates. As their relationship develops, Renault expertly conveys Greek culture, showing the impact of this supreme philosopher whose influence spans epochs.
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Fire from Heaven
by Mary Renault
Alexander’s beauty, strength, and defiance were apparent from birth, but his boyhood honed those gifts into the makings of a king. His mother, Olympias, and his father, King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son’s loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle. His love for the youth Hephaistion taught him trust, while Aristotle’s tutoring provoked his mind and Homer’s Iliad fueled his aspirations. Killing his first man in battle at the age of twelve, he became regent at sixteen and commander of Macedon’s cavalry at eighteen, so that by the time his father was murdered, Alexander’s skills had grown to match his fiery ambition.
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The Persian Boy
by Mary Renault
“It takes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior.”–The Atlantic Monthly The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.
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Funeral Games
by Mary Renault
“Renault’s best historical novel yet.... Every detail has solid historical testimony to support it.”–New York Review of Books After Alexander’s death in 323 B.C .his only direct heirs were two unborn sons and a simpleton half-brother. Every long-simmering faction exploded into the vacuum of power. Wives, distant relatives, and generals all vied for the loyalty of the increasingly undisciplined Macedonian army. Most failed and were killed in the attempt. For no one possessed the leadership to keep the great empire from crumbling. But Alexander’s legend endured to spread into worlds he had seen only in dreams.
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The Mask of Apollo
by Mary Renault
Set in fourth-century B.C. Greece, The Mask of Apollo is narrated by Nikeratos, a tragic actor who takes with him on all his travels a gold mask of Apollo, a relic of the theater's golden age, which is now past. At first his mascot, the mask gradually becomes his conscience, and he refers to it his gravest decisions, when he finds himself at the center of a political crisis in which the philosopher Plato is also involved. Much of the action is set in Syracuse, where Plato's friend Dion is trying to persuade the young tyrant Dionysios the Younger to accept the rule of law. Through Nikeratos' eyes, the reader watches as the clash between the two looses all the pent-up violence in the city.
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The Praise Singer
by Mary Renault
In the story of the great lyric poet Simonides, Mary Renault brings alive a time in Greece when tyrants kept an unsteady rule and poetry, music, and royal patronage combined to produce a flowering of the arts. Born into a stern farming family on the island of Keos, Simonides escapes his harsh childhood through a lucky apprenticeship with a renowned Ionian singer. As they travel through 5th century B.C. Greece, Simonides learns not only how to play the kithara and compose poetry, but also how to navigate the shifting alliances surrounding his rich patrons. He is witness to the Persian invasion of Ionia, to the decadent reign of the Samian pirate king Polykrates, and to the fall of the Pisistratids in the Athenian court. Along the way, he encounters artists, statesmen, athletes, thinkers, and lovers, including the likes of Pythagoras and Aischylos. Using the singer's unique perspective, Renault combines her vibrant imagination and her formidable knowledge of history to establish a sweeping, resilient vision of a golden century.