Imperium by Robert Harris
Tuesday, 19 Sep 2006 17:09
Imperium is the first part of an intended trilogy of novels about Cicero's life
Published by Hutchinson, out now, hardback, 405pp, £17.99.
In a nutshell…
Rome. Politics. Corruption. A treacherous cesspit of villains. One man.
What's it all about?
Cicero’s secretary Tiro, the inventor of shorthand, tells the story of his master's struggle from a lowly self-made man to the most powerful position attainable in Republican Rome – consul.
Of course, it is not an easy feat; Cicero's path to power is barricaded by rogue politicians and aristocratic tyrants in a political arena where the façade of liberty is marred by its inherent corruption.
His success is in his professionalism as a politician; he is by no means an ideological hero carrying the torch for truth and justice but a pragmatist, one who is well aware of Roman ideals but not naïve enough to blindly follow them.
Using all his political cunning, resolute conviction and the powers of persuasion that made him the most respected, and most feared, rhetorician in Roman history, Cicero lets nothing stand in his way of his unwavering ambition.
Imperium is the first part of an intended trilogy of novels about the great Roman statesman's life.
Who's it by?
After attending gaining a History degree from Cambridge, Robert Harris worked on BBC's Newsnight and Panorama as a journalist, becoming the political editor of the Observer in 1987. Subsequently, he became a columnist for the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, winning Columnist of the Year at the British Press awards in 2003.
He has had remarkable success with his previous novels, Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel and Pompeii all becoming number one bestsellers and they have been translated into 31 languages.
As an example…
"He looked at people but he did not see them. He was primed for action, playing out some inner drama, rehearsed since childhood, of the lone patriot, armed only with his voice, confronting everything that was corrupt and despicable in the state."
Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster
Sales-wise Imperium is already third on the Sunday Times bestseller list for hardback fiction and is likely to snowball in the run-up to Christmas – Harris has sold around ten million books worldwide.
But it is unlikely to be made into a film like Enigma or TV adaptations like Fatherland or Archangel because the focus is predominantly political – for better of for worse, it is no Gladiator of the page.
What the others say
"When [Harris] takes us inside the Senate for a dramatic confrontation, when he depicts the crucifixion of the rebel slaves along the Appian Way, when he describes the spectacles and smells of Rome, the reader can believe that it might well have been like that." - The Guardian.
Imperium "is a joy to read in every way, and as a mirror to the politics of our present age has no equal." - The Independent.
So is it any good?
Harris is never a disappointing read and with Imperium he has come up trumps again. Following the Guardian, the historical acuity with which he relays the story and presents the characters is remarkable considering the oceans of evidence out there and the compelling plot owes much to his earlier thrillers.
However, Imperium, like Harris' other novels, is simply A Good Read. Perhaps that’s a bit harsh – it's A Very Good Read. But due to its mechanical style and inability to make the characters break out of the second dimension, it will never go down as a great novel.
In a recent interview with the Observer, when asked why he doesn’t 'sex up' Rome’s political world, Harris replied, "I know my limitations". This is a telling comment, and explains why he chose his narrator to be the impersonal Tiro, who records Cicero’s life as rigidly as he notes his speeches.
Although this tactic helps to smooth the edge of Harris' journalistic style, it does not make up for the limitations that come with this bareness.
In the same interview, Harris lambastes the Booker prize winning 'literary' novels for assuming intelligence just because they are "difficult". But stylistic complexity does not have to be a hard read (think Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and rarely can originality of thought be achieved without it.
Harris' treatment of philosophy is cursory, emotional depth knee-high and the contemporary political allusions are limited to shortlived terrorism and an ironic wink to Cicero's "third way".
But this is not what Harris is about and he knows it. The court-room scenes where Cicero, using his diligent preparation, lawyer's guile and strength of purpose, takes on some of Rome's most vicious tyrants make for compulsive reading, and the depth of research causes the reader to quickly suspend his disbelief immersing himself into Rome's unsavoury underworld. Imperium gets the heart racing: it is A Very Good Read.
7.5/10
Kevin Crowley
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