What do you think?
Caesar #2
César Imperial
"Aún sopla el viento; faltan todavía algunas horas para el amanecer. Estamos en los idus de marzo. No hace mucho un adivino me dijo que me cuidara de este día", reflexiona Julio César la noche antes de su muerte. Tiene insomnio y rememora su vida ante la imposibilidad de conciliar el sueño; ya no es el joven César, es un hombre maduro, legislador, gobernante, escritor, más que un poderoso general, es 'imperator' de Roma. Luego el viento se calma en aquel primer día de primavera y, aunque no es momento de pensar en la muerte, ésta le sorprenderá a traición a las puertas del Senado. Pero, no es propio del César "demostrar ningún temor".
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
About the author
Gore Vidal
418 books1,928 followersWorks of American writer Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, noted for his cynical humor and his numerous accounts of society in decline, include the play
The Best Man
(1960) and the novel
Myra Breckinridge
(1968) .
People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.
Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.
They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.
At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde
Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).
Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).
Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.
Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.
Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.
People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.
Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.
They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.
At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde
Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).
Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).
Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.
Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.
Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 7, 2013
-Monólogos y onanismos hagiográficos.-
Género. Novela histórica.
Lo que nos cuenta. César no consigue conciliar el sueño en la noche de los idus de marzo, y comienza a reflexionar sobre él, su relación con otras figuras importantes en la historia de Roma y sobre su posición al frente de la República. Como sigue sin conseguir dormir, echa la vista atrás y repasa los hechos que le llevaron a la Galia y lo que sucedió después. Continuación de “El joven César” pero que se puede leer de forma totalmente independiente.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://www.librosdeolethros.blogspot....
Género. Novela histórica.
Lo que nos cuenta. César no consigue conciliar el sueño en la noche de los idus de marzo, y comienza a reflexionar sobre él, su relación con otras figuras importantes en la historia de Roma y sobre su posición al frente de la República. Como sigue sin conseguir dormir, echa la vista atrás y repasa los hechos que le llevaron a la Galia y lo que sucedió después. Continuación de “El joven César” pero que se puede leer de forma totalmente independiente.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://www.librosdeolethros.blogspot....
December 24, 2020
I, Caesar
If Rex Warner is read at all nowadays, it is his translations from Greek, in particular Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. His novels languish. Few remain in print and of his historical novels, only the two focusing on Caesar’s life. I read The Young Caesar more years ago than I would like to admit, but only read its sequel, Imperial Caesar, many, many years later. Both novels taken together comprise the ‘autobiography’ of Julius Caesar’s life, written in a similar style to Robert Graves’ I Claudius and Claudius the God. No third person objective and ironically detached version of events for a general audience here; this is an attempt to reveal Caesar’s inmost thoughts and motivation.
‘I cannot tolerate disorder and I know that without order there can be no liberty at all.’
Where The Young Caesar featured a charming and talented young man on the make, this second volume is a much more sombre and serious affair. It amounts to a self-defence of the narrator’s life and career, his violence in politics, his ruthless and brutal conquest of the Gallic nations, a constant litany of why he was compelled to act as he did, in every case forced by his enemies to ignore the laws and promote himself, the only saviour of Rome.
The reader might well feel disquiet at this apology for political self-promotion and authoritarianism, not to say the amoral imperialism in Gaul. And this despite Caesar’s own eloquent and persuasive rationale for his behaviour. Perhaps the reader is meant to feel so. Warner, after all, wrote a number of novels set in his own times which attacked both authoritarian behaviour and imperialism.
There are many incidental delights in the novel. Caesar presents brief and incisive character appraisals of many of those involved in the fall of the Roman Republic, not just the famous, like Pompey, Crassus and Cicero, but the more minor players, such as Clodius and Vatinius. Sometimes he is not as astute as he thinks, failing to see the threat from men such as Brutus and Cassius. Only one character attracts his consistent enmity, the turncoat general Labienus, who fought so well under him in Gaul, only to fight equally hard against him in the civil war.
I have only two quibbles with the novel. It is, I think, implausible for Caesar to produce such a lengthy volume on a single night, in fact the night before his assassination. Secondly, the conceit of his expectation of assassination seems rather laboured. These are minor criticisms. The book is still in print. Only Thornton Wilder’s The Ides of March rivals it for a fictional portrait of the great dictator, the most famous Roman of all.
If Rex Warner is read at all nowadays, it is his translations from Greek, in particular Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. His novels languish. Few remain in print and of his historical novels, only the two focusing on Caesar’s life. I read The Young Caesar more years ago than I would like to admit, but only read its sequel, Imperial Caesar, many, many years later. Both novels taken together comprise the ‘autobiography’ of Julius Caesar’s life, written in a similar style to Robert Graves’ I Claudius and Claudius the God. No third person objective and ironically detached version of events for a general audience here; this is an attempt to reveal Caesar’s inmost thoughts and motivation.
‘I cannot tolerate disorder and I know that without order there can be no liberty at all.’
Where The Young Caesar featured a charming and talented young man on the make, this second volume is a much more sombre and serious affair. It amounts to a self-defence of the narrator’s life and career, his violence in politics, his ruthless and brutal conquest of the Gallic nations, a constant litany of why he was compelled to act as he did, in every case forced by his enemies to ignore the laws and promote himself, the only saviour of Rome.
The reader might well feel disquiet at this apology for political self-promotion and authoritarianism, not to say the amoral imperialism in Gaul. And this despite Caesar’s own eloquent and persuasive rationale for his behaviour. Perhaps the reader is meant to feel so. Warner, after all, wrote a number of novels set in his own times which attacked both authoritarian behaviour and imperialism.
There are many incidental delights in the novel. Caesar presents brief and incisive character appraisals of many of those involved in the fall of the Roman Republic, not just the famous, like Pompey, Crassus and Cicero, but the more minor players, such as Clodius and Vatinius. Sometimes he is not as astute as he thinks, failing to see the threat from men such as Brutus and Cassius. Only one character attracts his consistent enmity, the turncoat general Labienus, who fought so well under him in Gaul, only to fight equally hard against him in the civil war.
I have only two quibbles with the novel. It is, I think, implausible for Caesar to produce such a lengthy volume on a single night, in fact the night before his assassination. Secondly, the conceit of his expectation of assassination seems rather laboured. These are minor criticisms. The book is still in print. Only Thornton Wilder’s The Ides of March rivals it for a fictional portrait of the great dictator, the most famous Roman of all.
August 21, 2019
César y Roma son dos nombres vinculados. No se puede hablar de uno sin pesar en la otra. .
Capital e Imperio vinculados eternamente a él, a Julio César, y en estas novelas sobre su vida podemos disfrutar tanto del hombre como del emperador.
.
Hazañas, victorias, derrotas...de la mano de este autor que no entra en contradicciones ni en cotilleos cleopatricos ni en lo macabro de su muerte.
.
Nos cuenta su vida. Punto.
.
Nos acerca al hombre y nos aleja del mito.
.
Nos habla de una manera bastante decente del hombre que tuvo el poder del mundo en sus manos.
.
Una buena opción para conocerlo mejor.
Capital e Imperio vinculados eternamente a él, a Julio César, y en estas novelas sobre su vida podemos disfrutar tanto del hombre como del emperador.
.
Hazañas, victorias, derrotas...de la mano de este autor que no entra en contradicciones ni en cotilleos cleopatricos ni en lo macabro de su muerte.
.
Nos cuenta su vida. Punto.
.
Nos acerca al hombre y nos aleja del mito.
.
Nos habla de una manera bastante decente del hombre que tuvo el poder del mundo en sus manos.
.
Una buena opción para conocerlo mejor.
March 8, 2013
This is the sequel to Young Caesar, and covers the period in Caesar's life from the beginnings of the Gallic wars through the morning of his assassination. It takes the form of his reminiscences of the events and people he has encountered. He has always been very ambitious, and has tried to procede without breaking any laws, but his enemies have forced him to cross the Rubicon and declare civil war. There are times in battle when he very nearly failed, but his courage, his tactical intelligence and the quality of his troops pulled him through. Even though there's virtually no dialog, this is a very readable account of the life of a fascinating character.
March 27, 2024
Per combatre l'insomni, Juli Cèsar fa un repàs dels darrers anys de la seva vida. Des de l'arribada a Gàl·lia fins al dia que ens transporta, la vigília dels Idus de març. Ens narra el seu ascens militar (com es va anar guanyant la confiança de l'exèrcit fins a imposar-se a totes, o gairebé totes, les tribus gal·les) i econòmic (aquest ascens militar també esdevingué econòmic, podent resoldre els seus deutes històrics fins convertint-se en multimilionari), però també el seu enfrontament enfront de la facció més distant i ultraconservadora del Senat (com es va deteriorant la seva relació amb Pompeu).
L'autor ens presenta el relat en primera persona, amb el típic toc esbiaixat que sempre succeeix quan és un mateix qui relata la seva pròpia vida. On dona èmfasis als seus encerts, destacant la seva humanitat, enfront moltes situacions: impedint que l'exèrcit arrasi ciutats assetjades; clemència, front l'enèmic derrotat... També amb molt tocs propagandístics: "ell no volia baralla, però el van provocar" o "Tot i això, sempre vaig posar sobre la taula la meva aposta per la pau", etc. Encara que suposo que tots els conqueridors i líders històrics han de tenir aquest punt megalòman i pensar-se sempre està per damunt dels seus comuns de l'època que li ha tocat viure.
Si bé la distribució i temps del llibre són clars i ordenats; el volum del llibre no dona per recrear-se en segons quines batalles o setges que han fet famós Juli Cèsar. Així i tot, es nota que és un relat molt treballat i acurat.
L'autor ens presenta el relat en primera persona, amb el típic toc esbiaixat que sempre succeeix quan és un mateix qui relata la seva pròpia vida. On dona èmfasis als seus encerts, destacant la seva humanitat, enfront moltes situacions: impedint que l'exèrcit arrasi ciutats assetjades; clemència, front l'enèmic derrotat... També amb molt tocs propagandístics: "ell no volia baralla, però el van provocar" o "Tot i això, sempre vaig posar sobre la taula la meva aposta per la pau", etc. Encara que suposo que tots els conqueridors i líders històrics han de tenir aquest punt megalòman i pensar-se sempre està per damunt dels seus comuns de l'època que li ha tocat viure.
Si bé la distribució i temps del llibre són clars i ordenats; el volum del llibre no dona per recrear-se en segons quines batalles o setges que han fet famós Juli Cèsar. Així i tot, es nota que és un relat molt treballat i acurat.
September 23, 2025
Me gusto este libro y le doy las cinco estrellas porque a pesar que he leído bastante de la vida de Julio Cesar en novelas históricas de otros autores; está tiene la especial característica que todo lo que describe lo recuerda la última noche de su vida en la cual ha padecido otro y el último de sus frecuentes insomnio.
la remembranza inicia con los hechos que llevaron a Julio Cesar a la conquista de las Galias, es decir cuando brilla su carrera militar.
Termino esta obra en buena época esperando la tercera obra de la saga de Santiago Posteguillo "Los tres mundos", que comprende este mismo periodo de la vida de Julio Cesar
la remembranza inicia con los hechos que llevaron a Julio Cesar a la conquista de las Galias, es decir cuando brilla su carrera militar.
Termino esta obra en buena época esperando la tercera obra de la saga de Santiago Posteguillo "Los tres mundos", que comprende este mismo periodo de la vida de Julio Cesar
June 16, 2018
Sobre el libro:
Continuación lógica de El joven César, pero de lectura independiente, esta es una apasionante novela sobre la evolución del guerrero, el legislador, el gobernante, el hombre más poderosos del imperio romano y, siempre, uno de los mayores conocedores de la naturaleza humana. Apartándose de lo anecdótico, Warner logra transmitir la talla humana e intelectual de Julio César, al tiempo que ofrece una poderosa reconstrucción de la época, adoptando la perspectiva del propio emperador.
***********
Review:
Esta novela histórica revela todos los pensamientos que inundan a Julio César antes de morir, y que, al tiempo, refleja comunes cavilaciones, crisis, inquietudes y preocupaciones humanas, inseguridades, tormentos, es decir, refleja a la persona en su mayor esplendor, cuando algo malo está a punto de ocurrirle y sabe que es irremediable, y entonces, surgen toda clase de deseos y sueños que siempre quiso alcanzar, o todos los buenos momentos y los que le hicieron destacar en el fondo de su mente. El libro se centra mucho en ello, pero en un sentido más figurado, por lo que el libro invita a que se trascienda. A su vez, lleva a un momento muy interesante de la historia.
Es un libro que debe abordarse con mucha atención, ya que es complejo de leer y uno puede perderse fácilmente entre líneas.
Continuación lógica de El joven César, pero de lectura independiente, esta es una apasionante novela sobre la evolución del guerrero, el legislador, el gobernante, el hombre más poderosos del imperio romano y, siempre, uno de los mayores conocedores de la naturaleza humana. Apartándose de lo anecdótico, Warner logra transmitir la talla humana e intelectual de Julio César, al tiempo que ofrece una poderosa reconstrucción de la época, adoptando la perspectiva del propio emperador.
***********
Review:
Esta novela histórica revela todos los pensamientos que inundan a Julio César antes de morir, y que, al tiempo, refleja comunes cavilaciones, crisis, inquietudes y preocupaciones humanas, inseguridades, tormentos, es decir, refleja a la persona en su mayor esplendor, cuando algo malo está a punto de ocurrirle y sabe que es irremediable, y entonces, surgen toda clase de deseos y sueños que siempre quiso alcanzar, o todos los buenos momentos y los que le hicieron destacar en el fondo de su mente. El libro se centra mucho en ello, pero en un sentido más figurado, por lo que el libro invita a que se trascienda. A su vez, lleva a un momento muy interesante de la historia.
Es un libro que debe abordarse con mucha atención, ya que es complejo de leer y uno puede perderse fácilmente entre líneas.
January 4, 2013
Otro gran libro, el cual es la continuación de : El joven César.
Escrito en primera persona, César nos narra sus vivencias durante las campañas de Las Galias, Britania, España, Africa y Asia.
Sería un buen libro de apoyo en la enseñanza de la historia de la gran Roma.
Escrito en primera persona, César nos narra sus vivencias durante las campañas de Las Galias, Britania, España, Africa y Asia.
Sería un buen libro de apoyo en la enseñanza de la historia de la gran Roma.
December 16, 2014
Gran César!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews