Product Description

The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels.

Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Roman Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshipping the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with Christianity that provoked his murder at the age of thirty-two, only four years into his brilliantly humane and compassionate reign. A marvelously imaginative and insightful novel of classical antiquity, Julian captures the religious and political ferment of a desperate age and restores with blazing wit and vigor the legacy of an impassioned ruler.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147478 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-12
• Released on: 2003-08-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
“High entertainment.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A subtle, provoking, enthralling book. . . . Vidal’s ability to invoke a world is amazing.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“Simply great. . . . A truly monumental novel.” —Associated Press

“Historical fiction in the true, honorable sense. . . . Full of vivid, richly wrought fictional detail.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Impressive. . . . To the formidable task which Vidal sets himself, he brings an easy and fluent gift for narrative; a theatrical sense of scene and dramatic occasion; and a revealing eye and ear for character delineation–to say nothing of wide reading.” –Newsweek

“A real hero. . . . An excellent book.” –Chicago Daily News

“Gore Vidal has the sharpest sense of what political power consists of, how it is achieved and what it does to a man. And at the same time he is funny, roaringly funny. . . . Julian is a brilliant beacon of light in the dim grey landscape of the historical novel.” –Louis Auchincloss

“A brilliant study of Julian’s era. . . . That rare historical novel which enjoys all the virtues of good history and good fiction.” –Washington Star

“No odder figure ever guided the destinies of the Roman Empire than the Emperor Julian Augustus. Here was a recluse and a scholar who became a great military leader, an ascetic who preached the life of the senses, a fatalist who believed he would remake the world. . . . He is endlessly fascinating.” –Time

Review
?High entertainment.? ?The New York Times Book Review

?A subtle, provoking, enthralling book. . . . Vidal?s ability to invoke a world is amazing.? ?The Christian Science Monitor

?Simply great. . . . A truly monumental novel.? ?Associated Press

?Historical fiction in the true, honorable sense. . . . Full of vivid, richly wrought fictional detail.? ?The Wall Street Journal

?Impressive. . . . To the formidable task which Vidal sets himself, he brings an easy and fluent gift for narrative; a theatrical sense of scene and dramatic occasion; and a revealing eye and ear for character delineation?to say nothing of wide reading.? ?Newsweek

?A real hero. . . . An excellent book.? ?Chicago Daily News

?Gore Vidal has the sharpest sense of what political power consists of, how it is achieved and what it does to a man. And at the same time he is funny, roaringly funny. . . . Julian is a brilliant beacon of light in the dim grey landscape of the historical novel.? ?Louis Auchincloss

?A brilliant study of Julian?s era. . . . That rare historical novel which enjoys all the virtues of good history and good fiction.? ?Washington Star

?No odder figure ever guided the destinies of the Roman Empire than the Emperor Julian Augustus. Here was a recluse and a scholar who became a great military leader, an ascetic who preached the life of the senses, a fatalist who believed he would remake the world. . . . He is endlessly fascinating.? ?Time

From the Inside Flap
The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal's finest historical novels.

Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Roman Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshipping the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with Christianity that provoked his murder at the age of thirty-two, only four years into his brilliantly humane and compassionate reign. A marvelously imaginative and insightful novel of classical antiquity, Julian captures the religious and political ferment of a desperate age and restores with blazing wit and vigor the legacy of an impassioned ruler.

Customer Reviews

Meticulous, Dramatic Account of Julian the Apostate & Paganism's Last Stand.
"Julian" of Gore Vidal's novel is the emperor Julian the Apostate, who ruled Rome for three short years, 360-363 AD, and is best-remembered for his failed attempt to restore paganism to an Empire awash in Christianity since his uncle Constantine's reign. Strictly speaking, this is more a fictional biography than a novel. It is composed of fictional memoirs, journals, and commentary. Its single-minded storyline -the life, deeds, and character of Julian- has a strong narrative quality, however, and the epistolary format allows commentary on the Emperor's ideas that might be awkward in a conventional narrative. Julian recounts his life story in a memoir up until the point of his Persian campaign, when he records his thoughts in a journal. Two aging Hellenist philosophers, Priscus and Libanius, comment on Julian's account and lament the state of the Empire since his death.

Priscus was a rationalist, atheist philosopher who accompanied Julian on his heroic military campaigns in Gaul and on his fatal Persian campaign as Emperor, so he is able to fill in parts of the story that Julian leaves out. As Priscus is critical of Julian's superstitious nature and fondness for mystery cults, he speculates on the origins of Julian's disaffection with Christianity, much to Libanius' annoyance. Libanius is a mystic rhetorician from Antioch, who knew and admired Julian and hopes to rehabilitate the Emperor's memory by publishing his memoir during the reign of Theodosius, who has recently decreed any religion other than Athanasian Christianity heretic. Libanius and Priscus were real people, but little is known of the real Priscus, and, needless to say, Julian didn't leave a memoir. Gore Vidal uses these characters to reflect on Julian and to place his actions in context.

Though far from being uncritical, "Julian" admires its subject in spite of his faults and his conceits, as Priscus and Libanius did, and as Gore Vidal obviously does. He was an intelligent, thoughtful man, whose impatience, superstition, and military ambition tended to undermine his mission to restore the "true gods" to the Empire. Oddly priggish, unfortunately elitist, Julian comes across as a sympathetic, fully realized character, a brave man who could be impressively astute and comically foolish at the same time. It's painful to watch his mistakes, inspiring to witness his triumphs, and disturbing to finally see Julian's failure. Gore Vidal's view of Julian is not without controversy, but to bring Julian and the final battle between paganism and Christianity in Europe so vividly to life sixteen centuries after it happened is a great accomplishment -and great writing.

What might have been
I approached "Julian" as a fan of Gore Vidal's essays and letters and as someone who often wonders how Western culture might have developed differently had it not been for the rise of monotheism in the form of Christianity. Vidal takes us back to one of the pivotal moments in late Roman history when the transition from religious pluralism and tolerance to state-sponsored monotheism was not yet complete. Vidal managed to make compelling and dramatic what might, in other hands, have been a dry and unsatisfying history lesson. I finished the book not only with the sense of loss I expected, but also with a more nuanced understanding of the issues at stake at that moment, again pivotal, in Western history.

6 Stars
Last year I read Vidal's Burr: A Novel and didn't think it could be topped, but this earlier novel of Vidal's is even more extraordinary.

Vidal creates a memoir by the Emperor Julian and presents it with the commentary of two friends. This novelization gives the reader a good understanding of the social and political dynamics of this often neglected period of history.

I take it on faith that the scholarship is as accurate as the critics contend which makes this book not just fiction, but literature, and a major achievement for its author.

The book begins with Julian's sheltered childhood as the nephew of the Emperor, who is always in fear that the males in his bloodline would rise up against him. The uncle, claiming to be a Christian (the new religion that has taken root), has killed Julian's father and later his brother along with many more. Seeds of doubt of this new religion were planted in Julian's mind early on.

Many reviewers have commented that the book is hard on Christianity. It shows how much the religion spead in the early days not just through missionary work, but also through politics and violence. It gives an equal number of swipes at the old religion. Julian's sacrifices are almost comedies (i.e. one bull had a damaged liver - an ominous sign, Julian spoke at the end of the ceremony negating its meaning so a healthy bull was brought in) as are Julian's looking for signs before battle.

For anyone interested in historical fiction this is an engrossing read.