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Twelve Against the Gods
This book is intended to elucidate history somewhat, more to illustrate it, to honor without hypocrisy the deeds of men and women whose destiny was larger, if not deeper than our own. Above all to shake loose the perception of the adventurer in us and of us in the adventurer. Included are sketches on the following: Alexander the Great; Casanova; Christopher Columbus; Mahomet; Lola Montez; Cagliostro, and Seraphina; Charles XII of Sweden; Napoleon I; Lucius Sergius Catiline; Napoleon III; Isadora Duncan; and Woodrow Wilson.
316 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
April 3, 2014
The core idea of this book, which I love, is that greats throughout history are typically remembered for the one incredible thing at which they excelled - yet we forget that many were absolute failures at most everything else. Bolitho hilariously depicts the rise and downfall of some of the most familiar names in world history. Rather than being mean-spirited, though, the book's obsession with failure and foible reveals the human side of demigods. Bringing them down to earth, we can more closely relate to them.
I found this book on the stacks at the S.C. Williams Library at Stevens Institute of Technology while I was employed there - when I briefly considered attempting to read every book in the library, which is not large.
I found this book on the stacks at the S.C. Williams Library at Stevens Institute of Technology while I was employed there - when I briefly considered attempting to read every book in the library, which is not large.
December 29, 2017
Pretty scary how close I came to never reading this book. If you're short on time, you only have to read:
Author's introduction
Alexander the Great
Casanova
Lola Montez
Charles XII of Sweden
(~130 pages)
Author's introduction
Alexander the Great
Casanova
Lola Montez
Charles XII of Sweden
(~130 pages)
August 11, 2016
quite good.
Picked this up at a book fair for 2 bucks, would not have recognized without the Elon Musk reference in the news a few days before.
Picked this up at a book fair for 2 bucks, would not have recognized without the Elon Musk reference in the news a few days before.
January 23, 2024
Like everyone else I read this ultimately because of Elon Musk. I don't dislike Elon, but I didn't read this because I wanted to know more about Elon. I read it because after I learned of it from his tweet (uh, X post), I looked it up and thought it sounded awesome.
Bolitho was a South African journalist and this book is in the style of many gentlemanly / amateur histories from his era. Bolitho is well-read, materialistic, civilized. He has a theory about adventure, a roster of Great Men (and Women) to apply his theory to, and some miscellaneous opinions to air along the way. He assumes the reader knows something of these figures. They're less mini-biographies than case studies.
Strangely I think the highlight was the essay on Woodrow Wilson. Bolitho gets more personal in that closing chapter, and powerfully describes the sense of utopian hope that surrounded Wilson right after World War 1 (in which Bolitho served as a soldier.)
The book had its slow parts and weaknesses, but I wasn't disappointed.
Bolitho was a South African journalist and this book is in the style of many gentlemanly / amateur histories from his era. Bolitho is well-read, materialistic, civilized. He has a theory about adventure, a roster of Great Men (and Women) to apply his theory to, and some miscellaneous opinions to air along the way. He assumes the reader knows something of these figures. They're less mini-biographies than case studies.
Strangely I think the highlight was the essay on Woodrow Wilson. Bolitho gets more personal in that closing chapter, and powerfully describes the sense of utopian hope that surrounded Wilson right after World War 1 (in which Bolitho served as a soldier.)
The book had its slow parts and weaknesses, but I wasn't disappointed.
May 21, 2009
Got it old and used for about U$S2. Looks interesting!
May 6, 2021
"What if this injustice were the very life of adventure? The man who puts his stake on the roulette board does not want justice, or his stake back unaltered. Justice for Christopher [Columbus] is a small shop in Genoa, or it may be a foot of wall in a Portuguese jail for fraudulent bankruptcy… Justice for Alexander is another dagger such as killed his father; for Casanova a horse-whipping, or a lifelong judgment of alimony. In this light, adventure is an excited appeal for injustice; the adventurer's prayer is 'Give us more than our due'." (pp96-7)
William Bolitho's Twelve Against the Gods would be an attractive read solely on its concept, but it is made even more compelling by its stylishness and the unapologetic delivery of its opinions. They don't make them like this anymore: slow but never boring – stately, rather; a book that assumes some decent level of education from its reader, rather than letting the class be held up by the slowest student; a polemic in the best sense of the word; a collection of journalism that has more flair and vigour than what passes for the name nowadays; a book with a cultivated taste, an awareness of objective standards, an unwillingness to let morality get in the way of a good story, and an appreciation of glory without glory-fetish.
Most people seem to have first heard about this book from the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk, who rates it highly, but I first heard about it from one or two mentions in the writing of Ernest Hemingway (who was a friend of Bolitho in the 1920s) and – I believe – from another of my favourite writers, George MacDonald Fraser. It's taken me a long time to get around to reading the book, and I can't remember exactly where it was I heard Bolitho in relation to Fraser, but Fraser brings to life Lola Montez in his second Flashman book, Royal Flash, and I would be surprised if he hadn't drawn on Bolitho's book – Lola is one of his Twelve – in resurrecting her.
I mention this for two reasons. One, because the Hemingway recommendation gives a better sense of Bolitho's book than Musk's does. Musk's recommendation – from a tweet in 2016 – caused demand for the out-of-print book to spike dramatically, as wannabe tech entrepreneurs in Steve Jobs turtlenecks looked for their next 'edge'. This might lead you to believe the book is one of those 'leadership' books that are all the rage nowadays – a sort of 'ten lessons from Lincoln in the art of leadership' – when it is anything but. Rather, Bolitho writes about his twelve historical figures in the way Hemingway writes about Scott Fitzgerald or James Joyce or Gertrude Stein in A Moveable Feast – as characters he has known intimately.
This leads me to my second reason for mentioning Fraser's novels: though non-fiction, Bolitho's book is essentially a study of character. He takes twelve historical figures – Alexander the Great, Casanova, Columbus, Mahomet (Muhammad), Lola, Cagliostro, Charles XII of Sweden, Napoleon, Catiline, Napoleon III, Isadora Duncan and Woodrow Wilson – and speaks of them almost as though they were his close friends. In a way, they are – Bolitho is clearly well-read and erudite, and knows his stuff – but the closeness of the book to its subjects is compelling and original, neither journalism or history but a heady mix of both. Literary criticism of the story of life.
For a book subtitled 'The Story of Adventure', some of the Twelve chosen by Bolitho might seem strange at first – Woodrow Wilson or Casanova spoken of as 'adventurers' in the same tone as Alexander and Columbus? – but Bolitho wins you over on every count. "The life of an adventurer is the practice of the art of the impossible", Bolitho argues on page 177, before going on to point out how in society, "the possibilities of human life are impregnably walled, to an intolerable minimum, by natural law, by the clockwork of determinisms of all sorts – except just where the adventurer breaks through. Where common sense is horrified, where the sign 'impossible' is raised in warning, kindness or spiteful joy, there is your exit, exactly there, prisoner; there is the door of adventure."
Each of Bolitho's Twelve are chosen to illustrate one aspect of this broad concept of adventure, as opposed to merely conquest or exploration (though those too). These are "personalities, forces, with a faint taste of allegory in their compositions, which Fate, like a common dramatist, likes to put in her best pieces" (pg. 175); those who best example the contest between the adventurer and the social man which is fought in every human heart (pg. 14). And whilst Bolitho is, in my opinion, at his best when writing about Alexander or Columbus, he is convincing even on the examples who seem, at first glance, the most dubious, such as Wilson or Lola Montez. Even Isadora Duncan, the dancer, gives Bolitho an opportunity to write powerfully about art and its relation to nature. The book is never a gimmick in the manner of a modern 'leadership' book; there is an appreciation of nuance, and an adept, laissez-faire unpacking of the theme rather than seminar-like callbacks.
Even more impressively, there is no moral judgment; Bolitho is only fascinated by the breed. I was particularly grateful for this appreciation of the "manurial virtue" of historical figures because, as I write in June 2020, statues are being attacked and torn down in both Britain and America, and not only those of slave traders and Confederate figures but the likes of Churchill and Gandhi and Jefferson (and Columbus, one of the Twelve). In seeking to explain why this is wrong, I can do no better than to turn to Bolitho: "No true biography has the power of exciting imitation; only myth has ethical magnetism. Life, that winged swift thing, has to be shot down and reposed by art, like a stuffed bird, before we can use it as a model… personality has to be simplified" (pg. 171). We have the statue of Churchill not because he was an imperialist or because of Tonypandy or the Bengal famine, but because the myth of Churchill that the statue represents – principled and uncompromising opposition to fascism, even when your backs are to the wall – is worthy of imitation in the way that his biography is not. Ditto Jefferson: in biography, he is a slave trader; in history, which is partly myth – rooted, selective, footnoted myth – he is an articulator of human rights and of measured republican government. It might smell at times, but manure is good for the soil.
I did not expect to find such vivid contemporary utility in Bolitho's out-of-print essays from 1929 (my yellowed Penguin paperback from 1939 is now practically falling apart), but then again, I did not expect anything like as much as I got from this forgotten treasure-trove. Twelve Against the Gods is a unique work: literary, erudite, stimulating and personal, drawing power from each of its twelve subjects and yet remaining entirely Bolitho. The book is best read slowly – not only because of the wealth of ideas unpicked over its course, but because of the writing style. Some sentences admittedly lose the thread – the approach to sentence structure makes me wish Hemingway had been an influence rather than merely an acquaintance – but for every line that you have to re-read, there are a dozen to be savoured.
This is a writer who, when speaking of Lola Montez, tells the story of how she acquired her surname thus: "The instrument was some anonymous male, some vague attaché or officer met and used in love as the ship crossed the Equator, with no more personal importance than the tiny wandering spider the portentous female of the species beckons to her embraces to serve for an hour and then be eaten" (pg. 130). This is a writer who, writing this well, can also bring original, perceptive ideas and élan. Who can also bring to his pages the presence of Alexander and his like. Most books bring their subjects down to earth in order to assess them – those non-mythic biographies I mentioned earlier – but Bolitho does something rarer. He lifts the reader up to their height.
William Bolitho's Twelve Against the Gods would be an attractive read solely on its concept, but it is made even more compelling by its stylishness and the unapologetic delivery of its opinions. They don't make them like this anymore: slow but never boring – stately, rather; a book that assumes some decent level of education from its reader, rather than letting the class be held up by the slowest student; a polemic in the best sense of the word; a collection of journalism that has more flair and vigour than what passes for the name nowadays; a book with a cultivated taste, an awareness of objective standards, an unwillingness to let morality get in the way of a good story, and an appreciation of glory without glory-fetish.
Most people seem to have first heard about this book from the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk, who rates it highly, but I first heard about it from one or two mentions in the writing of Ernest Hemingway (who was a friend of Bolitho in the 1920s) and – I believe – from another of my favourite writers, George MacDonald Fraser. It's taken me a long time to get around to reading the book, and I can't remember exactly where it was I heard Bolitho in relation to Fraser, but Fraser brings to life Lola Montez in his second Flashman book, Royal Flash, and I would be surprised if he hadn't drawn on Bolitho's book – Lola is one of his Twelve – in resurrecting her.
I mention this for two reasons. One, because the Hemingway recommendation gives a better sense of Bolitho's book than Musk's does. Musk's recommendation – from a tweet in 2016 – caused demand for the out-of-print book to spike dramatically, as wannabe tech entrepreneurs in Steve Jobs turtlenecks looked for their next 'edge'. This might lead you to believe the book is one of those 'leadership' books that are all the rage nowadays – a sort of 'ten lessons from Lincoln in the art of leadership' – when it is anything but. Rather, Bolitho writes about his twelve historical figures in the way Hemingway writes about Scott Fitzgerald or James Joyce or Gertrude Stein in A Moveable Feast – as characters he has known intimately.
This leads me to my second reason for mentioning Fraser's novels: though non-fiction, Bolitho's book is essentially a study of character. He takes twelve historical figures – Alexander the Great, Casanova, Columbus, Mahomet (Muhammad), Lola, Cagliostro, Charles XII of Sweden, Napoleon, Catiline, Napoleon III, Isadora Duncan and Woodrow Wilson – and speaks of them almost as though they were his close friends. In a way, they are – Bolitho is clearly well-read and erudite, and knows his stuff – but the closeness of the book to its subjects is compelling and original, neither journalism or history but a heady mix of both. Literary criticism of the story of life.
For a book subtitled 'The Story of Adventure', some of the Twelve chosen by Bolitho might seem strange at first – Woodrow Wilson or Casanova spoken of as 'adventurers' in the same tone as Alexander and Columbus? – but Bolitho wins you over on every count. "The life of an adventurer is the practice of the art of the impossible", Bolitho argues on page 177, before going on to point out how in society, "the possibilities of human life are impregnably walled, to an intolerable minimum, by natural law, by the clockwork of determinisms of all sorts – except just where the adventurer breaks through. Where common sense is horrified, where the sign 'impossible' is raised in warning, kindness or spiteful joy, there is your exit, exactly there, prisoner; there is the door of adventure."
Each of Bolitho's Twelve are chosen to illustrate one aspect of this broad concept of adventure, as opposed to merely conquest or exploration (though those too). These are "personalities, forces, with a faint taste of allegory in their compositions, which Fate, like a common dramatist, likes to put in her best pieces" (pg. 175); those who best example the contest between the adventurer and the social man which is fought in every human heart (pg. 14). And whilst Bolitho is, in my opinion, at his best when writing about Alexander or Columbus, he is convincing even on the examples who seem, at first glance, the most dubious, such as Wilson or Lola Montez. Even Isadora Duncan, the dancer, gives Bolitho an opportunity to write powerfully about art and its relation to nature. The book is never a gimmick in the manner of a modern 'leadership' book; there is an appreciation of nuance, and an adept, laissez-faire unpacking of the theme rather than seminar-like callbacks.
Even more impressively, there is no moral judgment; Bolitho is only fascinated by the breed. I was particularly grateful for this appreciation of the "manurial virtue" of historical figures because, as I write in June 2020, statues are being attacked and torn down in both Britain and America, and not only those of slave traders and Confederate figures but the likes of Churchill and Gandhi and Jefferson (and Columbus, one of the Twelve). In seeking to explain why this is wrong, I can do no better than to turn to Bolitho: "No true biography has the power of exciting imitation; only myth has ethical magnetism. Life, that winged swift thing, has to be shot down and reposed by art, like a stuffed bird, before we can use it as a model… personality has to be simplified" (pg. 171). We have the statue of Churchill not because he was an imperialist or because of Tonypandy or the Bengal famine, but because the myth of Churchill that the statue represents – principled and uncompromising opposition to fascism, even when your backs are to the wall – is worthy of imitation in the way that his biography is not. Ditto Jefferson: in biography, he is a slave trader; in history, which is partly myth – rooted, selective, footnoted myth – he is an articulator of human rights and of measured republican government. It might smell at times, but manure is good for the soil.
I did not expect to find such vivid contemporary utility in Bolitho's out-of-print essays from 1929 (my yellowed Penguin paperback from 1939 is now practically falling apart), but then again, I did not expect anything like as much as I got from this forgotten treasure-trove. Twelve Against the Gods is a unique work: literary, erudite, stimulating and personal, drawing power from each of its twelve subjects and yet remaining entirely Bolitho. The book is best read slowly – not only because of the wealth of ideas unpicked over its course, but because of the writing style. Some sentences admittedly lose the thread – the approach to sentence structure makes me wish Hemingway had been an influence rather than merely an acquaintance – but for every line that you have to re-read, there are a dozen to be savoured.
This is a writer who, when speaking of Lola Montez, tells the story of how she acquired her surname thus: "The instrument was some anonymous male, some vague attaché or officer met and used in love as the ship crossed the Equator, with no more personal importance than the tiny wandering spider the portentous female of the species beckons to her embraces to serve for an hour and then be eaten" (pg. 130). This is a writer who, writing this well, can also bring original, perceptive ideas and élan. Who can also bring to his pages the presence of Alexander and his like. Most books bring their subjects down to earth in order to assess them – those non-mythic biographies I mentioned earlier – but Bolitho does something rarer. He lifts the reader up to their height.
April 16, 2017
This is a not just a collection of biographies of adventurers - Bolitho also tries to analyse their fates and distil the pure adventurer from the essences of Alexander the Great, Casanova, Columbus et al.
The author delights in surprising contrasts; He deliberately compares Alexander the Great with Casanova, and the result isn't only to the advantage of the Macedonian king. The language is grandiloquent and bombastic with sentences that can cover half a page and take some effort to parse
The twelve characters are Alexander, Columbus, Mohammed, Lola Montez, Cogliostro&Seraphina, Charles XII of Sweden, Napoleon, Catalina, Napoleon III, Isadora Duncan and Woodrow Wilson. It's by no means a conventional cast of adventurers - no explorers (Bolitho explicitly disallows "the Atlantic flights, the polar journeys, the Everest climb, that flowering of heroism endurance above anything in humanity’s past, perhaps, which is the panache of our times," as being of "only secondarily concerns to our subject. The heroes of these things are the soldiers of society, not adventurers".)
Thus there are no Amundsen or Scot here. Nor are there any inventors (no Nobel or Edison), no scientists (no Darwin or even Einstein (who was at his peak when the book was written in 1929.)) or no artists (except for Isadora Duncan, who may count as one). Instead the unifying theme for all these biographies is a relentless drive. For conquest in the case of Alexander, trying to live up to the example of Alexander for Charlie dozen, and for glory in the case of Columbus and Napoleon.
The author delights in surprising contrasts; He deliberately compares Alexander the Great with Casanova, and the result isn't only to the advantage of the Macedonian king. The language is grandiloquent and bombastic with sentences that can cover half a page and take some effort to parse
The twelve characters are Alexander, Columbus, Mohammed, Lola Montez, Cogliostro&Seraphina, Charles XII of Sweden, Napoleon, Catalina, Napoleon III, Isadora Duncan and Woodrow Wilson. It's by no means a conventional cast of adventurers - no explorers (Bolitho explicitly disallows "the Atlantic flights, the polar journeys, the Everest climb, that flowering of heroism endurance above anything in humanity’s past, perhaps, which is the panache of our times," as being of "only secondarily concerns to our subject. The heroes of these things are the soldiers of society, not adventurers".)
Thus there are no Amundsen or Scot here. Nor are there any inventors (no Nobel or Edison), no scientists (no Darwin or even Einstein (who was at his peak when the book was written in 1929.)) or no artists (except for Isadora Duncan, who may count as one). Instead the unifying theme for all these biographies is a relentless drive. For conquest in the case of Alexander, trying to live up to the example of Alexander for Charlie dozen, and for glory in the case of Columbus and Napoleon.
June 5, 2023
This work really brings out the adventurer in you. While bombastic at times, I learned a lot about these 12 rebels in history. It was a tough read, but did stretch my reading comfort level. I’m not sure if the book is just old, or just too descriptive for a normal reader, but it’s kind of tough to get through easily.
All that to say, it left me with more knowledge and inspiration, which is not what you can usually say about many books.
All that to say, it left me with more knowledge and inspiration, which is not what you can usually say about many books.
October 5, 2019
A very interesting read,
One thing that stands out to me, is the excessive use of the word "Orgy" by the author!! :))
He either really likes orgy or orgy was a really important factor in our adventurers lives!
Anyways! I highly recommend this book! I'd like it to have a simpler dialect tho! The test is un-necessarily too Shakespeare-esque!!
One thing that stands out to me, is the excessive use of the word "Orgy" by the author!! :))
He either really likes orgy or orgy was a really important factor in our adventurers lives!
Anyways! I highly recommend this book! I'd like it to have a simpler dialect tho! The test is un-necessarily too Shakespeare-esque!!
April 25, 2018
A while back I read an article that this book, a book written in 1929 about 12 interesting people and their pursuit of adventure, was responsible for Elon Musk’s aiming high and for a large part of his success. Once he endorsed the book, it was of course very difficult to find. I finally got to read it and I am glad I did. It covers interesting characters from history, both men and women. It profiles people like Alexander the Great and tells the story of him taming a wild horse and winning a bet against his own father Philip II of Macedonia. He noticed the horse was spooked by its own shadow, so he turned it towards the sun. The book also covered Isadora Duncan and the very unfortunate way she passed away. Interesting fact not in the book, Isadora and Duncan Quagmire are characters featured in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. They are two of the three Quagmire triplets that provides lessons on the dangers of being fashionable in a not so subtle nod to the original Isadora Duncan who is covered in this book. It also covers Woodrow Wilson as a very significant President Of the United States and gives several reasons why he occupies a special place in history. There are 9 other people William Bolitho profiles in this very interesting book and I feel fortunate I finally got to read! It’s worth checking out! I plan on reading it again at some point.
March 4, 2024
The singular strength of this captivating book is neither the facts presented, nor the originality of sources but the brilliance of prose.
One is instantly reminded of the Nobel Prize Speech of Eugenio Montale. He says: “There is poetry even in prose, in all the great prose which is not merely utilitarian or didactic: there exist poets who write in prose or at least in more or less apparent prose; millions of poets write verses which have no connection with poetry.”
I wonder how many can describe Alexander in the manner William Bolitho does: ‘The Jews, those eternal contemporaries, who have seen everything and remembered everything, have a sort of muttering nursery rhyme on world history. Right in its beginning, where I have quoted it, arrives Alexander, the Fire, who burned the Achaemenian Empire, that ruled the world with its Staff, that beat the cruel Assyrian Dog, that bit the wise Babylonian Cat, that ate the poor, pure Kid, the chosen tribe God purchased from Moses, that stands at the bottom of the cosmical process of munching, which is their interpretation of history. Now Fire is a good word for Alexander, who lived like Fire, fought like Fire and died young, burnt out…’
This book speaks of a dozen men and women who’ve braved odds to challenge providence and rewrite history.
Just savour the prose of this book guys. Recommended.
One is instantly reminded of the Nobel Prize Speech of Eugenio Montale. He says: “There is poetry even in prose, in all the great prose which is not merely utilitarian or didactic: there exist poets who write in prose or at least in more or less apparent prose; millions of poets write verses which have no connection with poetry.”
I wonder how many can describe Alexander in the manner William Bolitho does: ‘The Jews, those eternal contemporaries, who have seen everything and remembered everything, have a sort of muttering nursery rhyme on world history. Right in its beginning, where I have quoted it, arrives Alexander, the Fire, who burned the Achaemenian Empire, that ruled the world with its Staff, that beat the cruel Assyrian Dog, that bit the wise Babylonian Cat, that ate the poor, pure Kid, the chosen tribe God purchased from Moses, that stands at the bottom of the cosmical process of munching, which is their interpretation of history. Now Fire is a good word for Alexander, who lived like Fire, fought like Fire and died young, burnt out…’
This book speaks of a dozen men and women who’ve braved odds to challenge providence and rewrite history.
Just savour the prose of this book guys. Recommended.
June 16, 2025
I can speak authoritatively about one of the subjects I know well - Muhammad. It’s no longer Elon Musk has a thing against Islam growing up on such lies.
Lie 1. Muhammad was a physically small man.
Lie 2. His adopted son Zayd was a Christian.
Lie 3. Food was among the 3 things the Prophet loved.
Lie 4. Quran is Muhammad speaking in 1st person… I could go on. I’ve spent thousands of hours reading and studying Muhammad and all the info contradicts this. I am afraid if the lies extend to other subjects.
Lie 1. Muhammad was a physically small man.
Lie 2. His adopted son Zayd was a Christian.
Lie 3. Food was among the 3 things the Prophet loved.
Lie 4. Quran is Muhammad speaking in 1st person… I could go on. I’ve spent thousands of hours reading and studying Muhammad and all the info contradicts this. I am afraid if the lies extend to other subjects.
February 17, 2019
I did not finish this book, though I am marking it finished. I am finished reading it. The book was written in 1912. I found the examples of the people chosen to be heavily Western biased and had a focus on those willing to break society's rules to live their lives. Some changed the world and some came to bad ends. I felt as though the expectations I had of the book and what the book actually was were two different things. I was disappointed in this book because I wanted to like it.
December 30, 2018
Absolutely LOVED this.
April 23, 2020
Couldn’t bring myself to listen to this past chapter three I think, and I’ve tried.
May 31, 2020
Did not finish, found potential but too hard to read.
January 20, 2021
Profiles read well, but are quite dated. I could only make it through the the first ~3.
May 18, 2021
Best read with prior knowledge of subjects. I found myself consulting Wikipedia at the start of each chapter. I did enjoy it and it's humor. Sadly much of it I'm sure went over my head.
July 16, 2021
Had to skip 2-3 chapters
April 17, 2022
A fascinating study of twelve adventurers. Not an easy read but worthwhile.
May 18, 2024
Grandiloquent writing of the tales of a variety of adventurers. Written in differing angles; showing the best and the worst of each. Enjoyable and intriguing.
September 29, 2024
Starts off really good, especially the first 3-4 chapters but after that it just get really boring and the chapters don't have the same impact anymore.
Want to read
November 11, 2024E musk
October 20, 2025
A collection of essays about twelve historical figures in which the nature of the adventurer is discussed. A rather tough read; Bolitho's language is very flowery, even by 1929 standards.
February 10, 2019
Not the easiest read as the author assumes quite a bit of prior knowledge of the twelve "hero" adventurers. I would definitely want to go back and re-read certain chapters after more detailed biographies of the participants. Bolitho has a unique way of writing to say the least. He inserts plenty of opinion and his own views regarding politics and the roles of these participants in history. These opinions are well worth hearing as he is definitely knowledgable on history from a western perspective writing in the 1920's post war era.
Each chapter is basically a mini biography covering twelve of the worlds most impactful adventurers. Humans that were able to use their will and determination to follow their desires contrary to the acceptable expectations of society. The author focuses on the main aspects of their life adventure and their inevitable fall.
My favorite chapters included Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Lola Montez and Mahomet (Muhammad), but the one that I felt was most interesting was the final chapter and most recent participant, Woodrow Wilson. The insights from an author writing post ww1 on someone in his own era came across as the most relevant and impactful. This is a book worthy of having on your bookshelf despite its age, written in 1929. Humanity and its characteristics are repeated throughout the cycles of human history regardless of the age. The tales of its greatest "adventurers" never get old and the lessons history teaches us are enduring.
Each chapter is basically a mini biography covering twelve of the worlds most impactful adventurers. Humans that were able to use their will and determination to follow their desires contrary to the acceptable expectations of society. The author focuses on the main aspects of their life adventure and their inevitable fall.
My favorite chapters included Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Lola Montez and Mahomet (Muhammad), but the one that I felt was most interesting was the final chapter and most recent participant, Woodrow Wilson. The insights from an author writing post ww1 on someone in his own era came across as the most relevant and impactful. This is a book worthy of having on your bookshelf despite its age, written in 1929. Humanity and its characteristics are repeated throughout the cycles of human history regardless of the age. The tales of its greatest "adventurers" never get old and the lessons history teaches us are enduring.
September 20, 2021
I will be reading this again many times over.
July 18, 2025
The introduction is excellent and should not be skipped. This book is the best psychological exploration of the adventurer that I've ever come acrosss. Although you could read the essays as stand-alone biographies, they build on each other, and Bolitho further develops his ideas as he explores each adventurer. That said, some essays are better than others.In the case of Mohammad in particular, I think my relatively limited knowledge of his life made the essay harder to follow. In general I think someone who knew nothing about these characters would get less out of the book.
You could profitably read Alexander, Casanova, Cagliostro/Seraphina, Charles XII, and Napoleon without missing too much. The other six are necessary to Bolitho's overall argument though.
I would love to know who he'd have chosen from the past century if he were writing in 2025. Particularly since the role of women in society has increased dramatically (he has an interesting line about the feminization of society somewhere in the book).
You could profitably read Alexander, Casanova, Cagliostro/Seraphina, Charles XII, and Napoleon without missing too much. The other six are necessary to Bolitho's overall argument though.
I would love to know who he'd have chosen from the past century if he were writing in 2025. Particularly since the role of women in society has increased dramatically (he has an interesting line about the feminization of society somewhere in the book).
September 10, 2021
I only read the author’s foreword and the chapter on Casanova. These were absolutely fascinating. Brilliantly written (despite breaking various English rules). He brings adventurers to life and describes what a true adventurer is.
Be prepared to consult Google frequently to define words, places, people and idioms. It is well worth the work.
I will be back to read the adventures of the other Eleven some day.
Be prepared to consult Google frequently to define words, places, people and idioms. It is well worth the work.
I will be back to read the adventures of the other Eleven some day.
Want to read
January 23, 2017Ryan Holiday's email list
12 Against the Gods: The Story of Adventure by William Bolitho
As I wrote for Thought Catalog earlier this month, I picked up this book sight unseen after I saw Elon Musk recommend it. The book was old and price was steep: $139. I didn't think twice. My rule is: If I want a book, I buy it--cost be !)&. There is a certain pleasure to be taken in folding the pages and writing in a 60 year old rare book and I took it. There are some great stories in here and it fits nicely in one of my favorite genres of "moral biographies." Was there a ton new for me? No. To most readers, I might recommend starting with Plutarch's Lives or Vasari's Painters, but I'm glad I read it and I'm proud to have this on my shelf. If you can't afford it, I'm sure there are plenty of places to pirate it.
12 Against the Gods: The Story of Adventure by William Bolitho
As I wrote for Thought Catalog earlier this month, I picked up this book sight unseen after I saw Elon Musk recommend it. The book was old and price was steep: $139. I didn't think twice. My rule is: If I want a book, I buy it--cost be !)&. There is a certain pleasure to be taken in folding the pages and writing in a 60 year old rare book and I took it. There are some great stories in here and it fits nicely in one of my favorite genres of "moral biographies." Was there a ton new for me? No. To most readers, I might recommend starting with Plutarch's Lives or Vasari's Painters, but I'm glad I read it and I'm proud to have this on my shelf. If you can't afford it, I'm sure there are plenty of places to pirate it.
July 3, 2021
I didn't quite read it. I read the parts on the people that interested me. I'll try to learn more about the others, and re-read the book with those people.
I don't care how good or bad the 60%+ of the book that I didn't read is. The introduction + the chapter on Alexander make a 5-star rating inevitable.
I don't care how good or bad the 60%+ of the book that I didn't read is. The introduction + the chapter on Alexander make a 5-star rating inevitable.
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