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merricatct's review against another edition
4.0
Julian the Apostate is one of my favorite historical figures, and this biography does a good job of presenting what is known about him and setting up the world in which he lived. Ultimately, Julian was a person who found himself in a very different role than he envisioned for himself, and did his best at his job while also staying true to himself and what he was good at. I think just about anyone who finds themselves grappling with the work/life balance question can sympathize with him!
I will say that I think reading Julian by Gore Vidal helped to flesh things out - obviously Vidal's work was fiction, but Julian's "voice" felt very similar to me across both of these works, and I believe they make good companion pieces. I didn't love the random poetry excerpts that started each chapter, and I think the "death of the ancient world" subtitle of the book is unnecessary and misleading, but minus those fluffy-stuff critiques, I'm glad I read this.
2016 reading challenge: a biography
I will say that I think reading Julian by Gore Vidal helped to flesh things out - obviously Vidal's work was fiction, but Julian's "voice" felt very similar to me across both of these works, and I believe they make good companion pieces. I didn't love the random poetry excerpts that started each chapter, and I think the "death of the ancient world" subtitle of the book is unnecessary and misleading, but minus those fluffy-stuff critiques, I'm glad I read this.
2016 reading challenge: a biography
sara_q_chicago's review
3.0
Not my typical "on the train" reading, but it was fairly compelling and enlightening on a period of history I knew little of.
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