Masters of Rome Collection Books I - V: First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, Fortune's Favourites, Caesar's Women, Caesar

by Colleen McCullough

The world cowers before its legions, but the fate of Rome hangs in the balance. From the marbled columns of the Senate to the squalid slums of the Subura, the city is about to be plunged into a conflict that will set rich against poor, Roman against Italian, father against son, a conflict destined to destroy the Republic but leave, in its stead, an Empire. From the seven hills of Rome to the Sahara desert, from Britannia to Bithynia, here is the stuff of unbearable cruelty, martial brilliance, murderous ambition and heroic destiny. Colleen McCullough's epic MASTERS OF ROME captures the soul of Rome in a way no other writer has ever managed. Included in this box set are the THE FIRST MAN IN ROME.
THE GRASS CROWN.
FORTUNE'S FAVOURITES.
CAESAR'S WOMEN.
CAESAR. Please This ebook contains all the original maps and illustration.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Ancient History

5596 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2014

About the author

Colleen Margaretta McCullough was an Australian author known for her novels, her most well-known being The Thorn Birds and Tim.

Raised by her mother in Wellington and then Sydney, McCullough began writing stories at age 5. She flourished at Catholic schools and earned a physiology degree from the University of New South Wales in 1963. Planning become a doctor, she found that she had a violent allergy to hospital soap and turned instead to neurophysiology – the study of the nervous system's functions. She found jobs first in London and then at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

After her beloved younger brother Carl died in 1965 at age 25 while rescuing two drowning women in the waters off Crete, a shattered McCullough quit writing. She finally returned to her craft in 1974 with Tim, a critically acclaimed novel about the romance between a female executive and a younger, mentally disabled gardener. As always, the author proved her toughest critic: "Actually," she said, "it was an icky book, saccharine sweet."

A year later, while on a paltry $10,000 annual salary as a Yale researcher, McCullough – just "Col" to her friends – began work on the sprawling The Thorn Birds, about the lives and loves of three generations of an Australian family. Many of its details were drawn from her mother's family's experience as migrant workers, and one character, Dane, was based on brother Carl.

Though some reviews were scathing, millions of readers worldwide got caught up in her tales of doomed love and other natural calamities. The paperback rights sold for an astonishing $1.9 million.

In all, McCullough wrote 11 novels.

Source: http://www.people.com/article/colleen...

Reviews

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[gaverne Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straightforward work of genius.If you want to know about the late Roman republic this is the book to read.You may think you know some of the stories e.g. about Caesar but this author has such deep psychological insights it will force you to rethink history.Long to read but well worth the effort.Books I will be re reading for many years to come.Can't believe this is from the same author as the Thorn
birds!

[SueChor · Rating 4 out of 5]

All 5 books terrific, progressively better, albeit obsessive about genealogy (as were Romans) and battles alike. Enjoyed later books more for personal details, likely fictionalized, but gossipy and interesting. Real sense of Roman character and breadth of Roman Empire, filled with intense historical detail. Massive undertaking, just reading them, cannot imagine level of obsessiveness to have written these books. Amazing.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masters of Rome Collection Books I - V: First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, Fortune's Favourites, Caesar's Women, Caesar I loved these works and that this is a collection.


Colleen invites us to unravel its intricacies layer by layer. It challenges us to confront the history within the story, suggesting that those who venture into this world may emerge with a changed perspective.

[Fred Clough · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the past few weeks I have been reading Colleen McCullough's enormous, seven volume novel based on the history of Rome - at present, I am well into the fifth volume, which focuses on Caesar and the Gallic wars. The entire series covers the later years of the republic, beginning with the rise to power of Gaius Marius, and finishes in the early empire. I knew McCullough only as the author of some novels set in modern Australia: The Thorn Birds and The Touch are the ones I have read recently, both pleasant, romantic, and quite lightweight tales. So to encounter Masters of Rome was an agreeable surprise: it is a book of considerable substance, power and (almost) unflagging interest. I know just enough of Roman history to be aware that the writing is based on very thorough research: I wonder how she had the time to do all that research - and writing - while simultaneously sustaining a career as a neuroscientist. One of the book's most interesting aspects (for me) is the way in which practical details of daily life, and in particular the life of a Roman soldier, are realised in such detail: what they carried with them on the March, how to construct a military camp - whether a marching camp for just a night, or a long-term camp in which details of sewage disposal need to be worked out. All such details help to make the ancient world which McCullough creates utterly real and convincing.
But this is no dry historical tome: many of the key characters are very fully and precisely realised, they come alive on the page - in the case of Caesar, moreso I think in these novels than in the two novels centred on Caesar by the classicist, Rex Warner. I suggested above that my interest occasionally, well, very occasionally, flagged. We are introduced to a great many characters, some more fully realised than others; and I occasionally found myself skipping quickly through when the details of the arranged marriages among the key patrician families of Rome were being discussed; likewise when some of the shifting alliances and enmities of the many Gallic tribes which Caesar encounters are detailed. But, so absorbing is the experience of reading these novels that, when the final volume is finished, I will, I am sure, feel that bittersweet sense of loss ('what can I possibly read after that?') which comes from an encounter with the most rewarding literature.

Having now read to the end of the fifth volume (the last one in this Masters of Rome compendium) I was slightly surprised that the focus finally left Caesar (who has been the main subject of this last volume) to finish with the ignominious murder of Pompey in Egypt. However, that has left me all the more eager to proceed to the final two volumes, the next one of which will presumably include Caesar's assassination.

[Katrina Weeks hodgetts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series

[Mike Ratliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical fiction done at this level of sophistication is among the great joys of life. Such novelists combine the historians' understanding with the literary writers ability to enter into the culture and even the mind of the protagonists.

[Andy Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy's Review

Downloaded this as, although I have read the first three novels in this series some years ago I hadn't ' read volumes 4 & 5. I'm really glad I downloaded this edition - an epic saga covering some 62 years of Roman History, full of many memorable characters, both well known & not so well known. Took me quite a while to read it, but it was worth it, and I am looking forward to reading the final 2:novels in this series.

[Rick Taglieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually, this is a review for all seven books in this series which I have read through twice and they are among my favorite books of all time. It’s a shame Miss McCullough passed away and couldn’t have gone into the empire.
Plus, the glossaries in the back of the book are fantastic; roughly 100 pages each. I learned more about the Roman republic through those glossaries than I did in a 300 level college class about pre-empire. Rome. Highly recommended without reservation!

[Gina Romeo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing books.

[Blue Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another masterpiece by McCullough.

[Stewart Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 books in one volume, over 5000 pages. Well worth it though, a gripping telling of one of the most interesting periods of history.

[James Gault · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant piece of work. Fact and fiction cleverly melded into a readable and engaging form.

[Ian Tymms · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got through the first boo0 (980 odd pages) and am having a rest for a year or three. McCullough's historical knowledge is encyclopaedic, impressive and exhausting.

[Dwight Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved all of these fantastic books. highly detailed , great characterization, wonderful historical research.

[Loyal Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally made to the end and discovered there are two more books. Not going there, the death of Pompey the Great is far enough. An entertaining read and a pretty good fictionalized account of a time period that interests me, I glad I stuck with it, but time to move on.

[Betterread · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books have everything - tales of power, intrigue, politics, relationships and more. Well drawn characters and the narratives are sustained through what are very long books. Helpful notes at the end on what is made up vs likely to be factual. Brilliant.