Wilder included quite a number of female characters, recognizing their political and religious significance. I came to love the scheming Roman women and found Cleopatra to be quite fascinating. I felt I came to know the main players remarkably well. It is surprising how well people can be characterized through their written documents. I adore books that are written in letter format, so I was predisposed to appreciate this one. I began reading this on the Ides of March (I live in hope that my local Shakespeare Company will perform Julius Caesar in March one year, so that I can attend it on the Ides).

I can’t believe that this was published in 1948! It truly has not aged, possibly because it was dealing with much older history. Where there is an unknowable there is promise. This also prevents me from reaching any summary conclusions concerning our human condition. No bounds have been conceived for crime and folly. The way is open to better poets than Homer and to better rulers than Caesar. I have often remarked that whereas men say there is a limit beyond which a man may not run or swim, may not raise a tower or dig a pit, I have never heard it said that there is a limit to wisdom. We rulers must spend a large part of our time capturing their imaginations. The adherence of a people is not acquired merely by governing them to their best interests. Caesarĭictators must know the truth, but must never permit themselves to be told it. I was the instrument of a higher wisdom that selected me for my limitations and not my strengths. If any mistakes occur this time I shall replace you and offer you for sale. My brother and I are giving a dinner on the last day of the month. I govern innumerable men but must acknowledge that I am governed by birds and thunderclaps. I have inherited this burden of superstition and nonsense. In any event, it is clearly a work of considerable scholarship and breathes a lushness into the language. Perhaps it inspired John Williams to write 'Augustus'. And given the title and my elementary school diploma, I pretty much know how it's going to end.Īn epistolary novel, I imagine it was inventive for its time.

It's a beaten-up first edition (sold for $2.75 way back in 1948), the cover embalmed in lamination. It's an obscure work by a fairly respected author.

This 'The Ides of March', though, is the kind of book that would hide for years on a TBR shelf. But before you send smiling emojis, virtual pats on the back, or other huzzahs, please know that other Goodreads friends wrote reviews of books that caused me to engage in a zero sum game with myself and order two new books which even I, a mathematics dullard, can figure out this means I have more, not less, books to read. Inspired by several Goodreads friends, I decided to slide this book out of one of the TBR shelves, to lighten that load.

The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder