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The Emperor Constantine: A chronicle
The Emperor A chronicle
- GenresHistory
191 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
105 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy L. Sayers
739 books3,022 followersThe detective stories of well-known British writer Dorothy Leigh Sayers mostly feature the amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey; she also translated the
Divine Comedy
of Dante Alighieri.
This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.
Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...
This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.
Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 15, 2020
3.5 definitely not Man Born to be King. I would have enjoyed it more if I understood more history (world or church).
August 21, 2011
Perhaps not quite as good as "The Man Born to be King," but excellent nonetheless. Sayers has a great ability as a playwright to get complicated ideas across in dramatic fashion. Her re-creation of the Council of Nicea and the interplay between Arius and Athanasius is alone worth the read. Her treatment of Constantine avoids oversimplification seen in some treatments of him.
My only minor quibble would be that the play does not give a full bodied, intelligent counterpart to the idea that formal union of Church and State would be a bad idea. Perhaps she felt that this would bog down the play and minimize dramatic flow. But even if this is a significant hang-up for you, if you are interested at all in the period don't let that stop you.
My only minor quibble would be that the play does not give a full bodied, intelligent counterpart to the idea that formal union of Church and State would be a bad idea. Perhaps she felt that this would bog down the play and minimize dramatic flow. But even if this is a significant hang-up for you, if you are interested at all in the period don't let that stop you.
August 2, 2025
I'm sorry, D. L. Sayers, but this is not a good play. Almost unreadable in places, I can't see how it could ever be staged effectively. For one thing, it's far too large, attempting to cover the entire life of Constantine. It would be much more dramatically effective to concentrate (as the later part of the play does) on the Council of Nicaea. I admire nearly everything that Sayers has written—but this is a bad play.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews