A Struggle for Rome - Couverture souple

Dahn, Felix

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1782810498 ISBN 13 : 9781782810490

Editeur : New Generation Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

Felix Dahn was a nineteenth century German Professor of Jurisprudence, as well as a historian, novelist and poet, who was greatly admired by his academic contemporaries for his grasp of the historical detail of the periods about which he wrote. He has been well served by this magisterial translation, which at last makes this astonishingly rich novel available to the modern English reader. This is a story - perhaps the story - of the clash between two great civilizations of the sixth century of the Common Era, when the Roman Empire had crumbled into dust; the struggle for Rome, and for Italy, between the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium, ruled by Justinian, and the Gothic warrior tribes who had captured Italy under their legendary king Theodoric. We see this epoch through the eyes of different personalities at the centre of these events which shook the world as they knew it; most are historical figures and some are imaginary but typical; Justinian and his beautiful and scheming wife, Theodora; the great commander Belisarius, immortalised by Robert Graves; Totila and Teias, two Gothic kings, one as bold and bright as the sun and the other as black as night; and Cethegus, the Prefect of Rome and the last of the Romans, whose cold and calculating nature runs through the book like a steel thread, who will stop at nothing to regain the ancient city, and who, in the end, fails and redeems his many crimes with a hero's death. Firmly based on historical fact and contemporary sources, A Struggle for Rome is one of the great historical novels of the world.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

A Struggle for Rome is an historical novel written by Felix Dahn under the original title Ein Kampf um Rom in German, published in 1876. The plot is both colourful and rich of intrigue. The novel focuses on the actual struggle for control over Ancient Rome and specifically on the acts of heroism and heroic deaths therein. This book was quickly considered a novel for boys in the German Empire newly founded in 1871 and it was continuously handed over from the previous generation of adolescents to the next until the 1940s. The story recounts the struggle of the Ostrogoth state in Italy with the Eastern Roman Empire and describes their doom. The main motif of the book is stated in the poem at its end: Make way, you people, for our stride. We are the last of the Goths. We do not carry a crown with us, We carry but a corpse. [ ... ]. This corpse belongs to their late and last king Teia (Teja) who, in the complete story, symbolises the tragedy of his people's downfall from the moment of the death of Theodoric the Great. This book was interpreted as a criticism on decadence during the reign of German emperor William II and it was interpreted as a prediction for the fall of the German Empire after World War I (in retrospect). Theodoric the Great is succeeded by his infant grandson Athalaric, supervised by his mother, Amalasuntha, as regent. The lack of a strong heir caused the network of alliances that surrounded the Ostrogothic state to disintegrate. The Visigothic kingdom regained its autonomy under Amalaric and the relations with the Vandals turned increasingly hostile. The Franks embarked again on expansion, subduing the Thuringians and the Burgundians and almost evicting the Visigoths from their last holdings in southern Gaul…………. Julius Sophus Felix Dahn was born in Hamburg as the oldest son of Friedrich (1811–1889) and Constanze Dahn who were notable actors at the city's theater. The family had both German and French roots. Dahn began his studies in law and philosophy in Munich, where he had moved with his parents in 1834, and then graduated as Doctor of Laws in Berlin. After his habilitation treatise, Dahn became lecturer of German Law in Munich in 1857. In 1863 he became senior lecturer/associate professor in Würzburg, received a professorship in Königsberg (in 1872, and in 1888 he relocated to University of Breslau, again as a full professor, and was elected rector of the university in 1895. He belonged to as honorary member to association "Germania," a nationalistic and anti-Semitic organization, and was one of the leaders of the far right of Alldeutscher Verband Dahn was also honorary doctor in Medicine and in Philosophy. A month before his 78th birthday, Dahn died in Breslau. He was married to Therese von Droste-Hülshoff (1845-1929). Dahn was a trained historian and - prior to the novel - had published a first scientific monography about Procopius of Caesarea (in 1865), the main source of the Gothic War (535–552), describing the history of Theoderic's realm and people and their future fates. Dahn incorporated many historical details into the story. However, he was also able to create new characters if he felt the need for them, e.g. Cethegus. Dahn's writings were extremely influential in forming the conception of the European history unfolding during the first millennium CE which dominated German-speaking countries during the late 19th and early 20th century. His multi-volume Prehistory of the Germanic and Roman Peoples, a chronology of the European Völkerwanderung (Migration Period) that first appeared in print in 1883, was so definitive that abbreviated versions were reprinted until the late 1970s. His works contributed to the foundation of National Socialism in Germany, while his book Ein Kampf um Rom encouraged a "völkisch avant-garde" who feared the supposed danger of ethnic mixing. Besides his historical works he also published nationalist poems in which he compared Poles to animals like wolves.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: New Generation Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1782810498
• ISBN 13: 9781782810490
• Reliure: Broché
• Langue: anglais
• Nombre de pages: 742
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible