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Augustus

A Novel

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Augustus

Written by: John Williams
Narrated by: Robin Field
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

By the author of Stoner, the surprise international bestseller

After the brutal murder of his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, Octavian, a shy and scholarly youth of nineteen, suddenly finds himself heir to the vast power of Rome. He is destined, despite vicious power struggles, bloody wars and family strife, to transform his realm and become the greatest ruler the western world had ever seen: Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor.

Building on impeccable research, John Williams brings the legendary figure of Augustus vividly to life, and invests his characters with such profound humanity that we enter completely into the heat and danger of their lives and times.

©2023 John Williams (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Ancient Biographical Fiction Classics Genre Fiction Historical

Critic Reviews

Weir’s sympathetic and detailed biography reassesses the life of a woman whose role in public life…has been underrated by historians
The finest historical novel ever written by an American
It would be easy to over-praise this novel; but there does not seem any adequate reason why this temptation should be resisted
A novel of extraordinary range, yet of extraordinary minuteness, that manages never to sacrifice one quality for the other
Williams has fashioned an always engaging, psychologically convincing work of fiction - a consistent and well-realized portrait
A highly imaginative account of the life and times of Augustus-a brilliant novel
A brilliant epistolary novel about Octavius Caesar and ancient Rome...all three [of John Williams'] novels show a similar narrative arc: a young man's initiation, vicious male rivalries, subtler tensions between men and women, fathers and daughters, and finally a bleak sense of disappointment, even futility.
Exquisite...brims with great lines
A vividly imagined re-creation of classical Rome, but its intuitive grasp of the experience of immense power makes it an unusual, and superior, novel
There could be no better year than 2014 to rediscover this one (Mary Beard)
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