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Jun. 15th, 2009 02:29 pmJust finished "The Conspiracy," by John Hersey, which is that miraculous thing, a good historical novel. Not, of course, that it was perfect, or even great, but it tried to do interesting things. For one thing, it's from the point of view of members of Nero's secret police, and Lucan and Seneca are nominally the "bad guys." Nero's poetical ambitions weren't an object of mockery, as they are in, say, Suetonius.
But the book somehow failed to inspire emotion until the end. It's a problem with epistolary novels, unless one takes the path of Liasons dangereuses and writes a novel with "To X" at the beginning of the chapters. None of the characters felt particularly developed, since most of the letters were instructions from the commander of the Praetorians to the head of the Secret Police. Lucan and Seneca were shown through intercepted personal correspondence, so they were much more human.
Tigellinus, the Co-Commander of the Praetorian Guard, does terrible things and thinks he's right. It's a hard thing to write, and I'm not entirely sure Mr. Hersey pulled it off. It was clear both that he was wrong and that he thought he was not; but part of the effectiveness of writing a character like that is drawing the readers into his mind, which didn't happen for me. This may again be the fault of the format or of some part of the style: I was very distanced from everything. In the beginning of the novel, Tigellinus is organizing a lavish party for Nero (why are the Praetorians in charge of party-organizing? I have no idea). He gets Roman matrons to pretend to be prostitutes for the party-goers. My main reaction to this was "Oh, okay then." He didn't sound particularly interested in it, so why should I?
All this meant that Paenus' (head of secret police) heel-face turn at the end was at least slightly unbelievable. Lucan and Seneca's deaths are certainly moving - they're the strongest part of the book. But it can't be the first time Paenus has seen something like that, and he's shown no doubt up to the end. He first starts to feel bad after they torture Epicharis, the freedwoman wife of Seneca's brother, into committing suicide so she doesn't betray anyone. Which is fine, and makes sense, and it's not as out of character as it would have been for Tigellinus, but I still wish that he had wavered more in his letters to Tigellinus.
Now, I always see good places for endings fifty pages before the author does. Here I am particularly unthrilled by the ending - Nero sends out a notice of a festival celebrating his escape from the conspiracy, and the book ends "Let there be rejoicing in Rome. Let there be rejoicing in Rome. Let there be rejoicing in Rome." And I get it. But ending it on Lucan's death, or I'd rather Seneca's, would have been much stronger. Seneca's, because his final letter answers the question that I feel is the center of the novel and which has been thrown from Lucan to Seneca in their letters - what is the responsibliity of a writer. Lucan's death is a good piece, but the book feels complete with Seneca's.
(A Note: This is probably my last post for the summer. I go to the Land of No Internet on Thursday and come back in August. I'm going to be a counselor at my old summer camp, which should be loads of fun if they don't have to sedate me when I start foaming at the mouth from withdrawal.)
But the book somehow failed to inspire emotion until the end. It's a problem with epistolary novels, unless one takes the path of Liasons dangereuses and writes a novel with "To X" at the beginning of the chapters. None of the characters felt particularly developed, since most of the letters were instructions from the commander of the Praetorians to the head of the Secret Police. Lucan and Seneca were shown through intercepted personal correspondence, so they were much more human.
Tigellinus, the Co-Commander of the Praetorian Guard, does terrible things and thinks he's right. It's a hard thing to write, and I'm not entirely sure Mr. Hersey pulled it off. It was clear both that he was wrong and that he thought he was not; but part of the effectiveness of writing a character like that is drawing the readers into his mind, which didn't happen for me. This may again be the fault of the format or of some part of the style: I was very distanced from everything. In the beginning of the novel, Tigellinus is organizing a lavish party for Nero (why are the Praetorians in charge of party-organizing? I have no idea). He gets Roman matrons to pretend to be prostitutes for the party-goers. My main reaction to this was "Oh, okay then." He didn't sound particularly interested in it, so why should I?
All this meant that Paenus' (head of secret police) heel-face turn at the end was at least slightly unbelievable. Lucan and Seneca's deaths are certainly moving - they're the strongest part of the book. But it can't be the first time Paenus has seen something like that, and he's shown no doubt up to the end. He first starts to feel bad after they torture Epicharis, the freedwoman wife of Seneca's brother, into committing suicide so she doesn't betray anyone. Which is fine, and makes sense, and it's not as out of character as it would have been for Tigellinus, but I still wish that he had wavered more in his letters to Tigellinus.
Now, I always see good places for endings fifty pages before the author does. Here I am particularly unthrilled by the ending - Nero sends out a notice of a festival celebrating his escape from the conspiracy, and the book ends "Let there be rejoicing in Rome. Let there be rejoicing in Rome. Let there be rejoicing in Rome." And I get it. But ending it on Lucan's death, or I'd rather Seneca's, would have been much stronger. Seneca's, because his final letter answers the question that I feel is the center of the novel and which has been thrown from Lucan to Seneca in their letters - what is the responsibliity of a writer. Lucan's death is a good piece, but the book feels complete with Seneca's.
(A Note: This is probably my last post for the summer. I go to the Land of No Internet on Thursday and come back in August. I'm going to be a counselor at my old summer camp, which should be loads of fun if they don't have to sedate me when I start foaming at the mouth from withdrawal.)
