Hadrian: A novel

by Joël Schmidt

Second century Roman Emporer Hadrian tells his life from his boyhood through his young manhood with its sexual and spiritual initiations, to mature adulthood and his accension to imperial power after Trajan's death. Highlighted is his intense love affair with the handsome Bithynian adolescent Antinoüs.

Genres: Historical Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just as Robert Graves did in I, Claudius this story purports to be an autobigraphy as told by a roman emporer. While that worked well for Robert Graves, this effort is of a feebler nature. It felt episodic but without the dramatic highlights that the earlier series had.

While this does a workman-like job of presenting the historic facts there isn't a lot that makes us care very deeply for any of these characters. The novel does give one a sense of some of the events and issues of the day but it fails to be compelling.

I think that there's still room in the story for a better book with more character development and perhaps some dramatic invention to entertain us and leave us with a better image of Hadrian and Antinuous, just as Shakespeare's Julius Caesar left room for Showtimes ROME. I'm not suggesting that Shakespeare's tale was anything less than great, but a new fresh perspective can often add dramtaic details that the original didn't feature.