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A review by rheren
Count Belisarius by Robert Graves
2.0
I was really looking forward to reading this book, after learning about the amazing life of Belisarius, but was very disappointed. I really enjoyed Robert Graves' Claudius books, but this one paled in comparison.
The third person narrative just didn't grab me the way that the first-person Claudius books did. The descriptions of battles were interesting, but still somewhat dry. Other than the battles, though, the intrigues and injustices were depressing and tragic, but just annoyed me rather than pierced me. I especially was annoyed by his portrayal of Justinian, the emperor Belisarius served. It was just absurd. Certainly, Justinian had his faults: he was paranoid, grandoise, rapacious and vain, no doubt about that. However, Graves' further portrayal of him as licentious, incompetent, lazy and weak is just ridiculous. There were PLENTY of Roman and Byzantine emperors that fit those characteristics, and the contrast between their reigns and Justinian's is so stark as to be inarguable, I would say. Anyways, that's just the armchair historian in me. I kinda liked Justinian, in his own way, so I had a hard time getting past that continual refrain in the book.
By the end of the book I was skimming it just to finally be done with it, and that's the sign of a 2-star book, in my rating system.
The third person narrative just didn't grab me the way that the first-person Claudius books did. The descriptions of battles were interesting, but still somewhat dry. Other than the battles, though, the intrigues and injustices were depressing and tragic, but just annoyed me rather than pierced me. I especially was annoyed by his portrayal of Justinian, the emperor Belisarius served. It was just absurd. Certainly, Justinian had his faults: he was paranoid, grandoise, rapacious and vain, no doubt about that. However, Graves' further portrayal of him as licentious, incompetent, lazy and weak is just ridiculous. There were PLENTY of Roman and Byzantine emperors that fit those characteristics, and the contrast between their reigns and Justinian's is so stark as to be inarguable, I would say. Anyways, that's just the armchair historian in me. I kinda liked Justinian, in his own way, so I had a hard time getting past that continual refrain in the book.
By the end of the book I was skimming it just to finally be done with it, and that's the sign of a 2-star book, in my rating system.