Anabasis: A Journey to the Interior [Paperback]

Ellen Gilchrist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1995

The bestselling author of In The Land of Dreamy Dreams expands her fictional landscape and for the first time recounts a story set in ancient times. 500 B.C.--Pericles is dead; the Golden Age has peaked; and, in its aftermath, in a Grecian setting of declines and fall, a slave girl begins her ascension to freedom and self-discovery.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

National Book Award winner Gilchrist (Victory over Japan; Star Carbon) lifts her literary gaze from the exploits of the Hand family to produce this richly textured but overly idealized historical novel. During the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) between Athens and Sparta, Auria, a runaway slave girl, transforms herself into a warrior, healer, lyceum teacher, painter, ceramist, poet, songwriter and fiercely loving adoptive mother of an infant girl whom she rescues from a cave. Escaping her callous master, Auria teams up with a band of exiles and runaway slaves plotting rebellion in a mountain fortress, where she eventually marries Pericles's grandnephew Meion. Though representative of Gilchrist's assertive, independent heroines, Auria is neither fully realized nor wholly credible. A larger-than-life quality unsettles the story, even though Gilchrist ably evokes a Greece roiled by war, plagues and injustice as she touches, sometimes too heavily, on such themes as women's sexual and social subservience.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

National Book Award winner Gilchrist is best known for fiction depicting modern Southern lives (e.g., In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, LJ 10/15/81), but here she departs from that setting dramatically. In her "Author's Note," Gilchrist explains how as a child, inspired by her mother's renderings of classical history and myth, she first imagined this story of a literate slave girl in ancient Greece. Intelligent and inquiring, Auria is raised as the apprentice of renowned healer-philosopher Philokrates. After his death, the teenager escapes from their villa, taking with her an unwanted baby girl exposed to die, a goat, and a dog. The companions travel into the wild mountains, depending on Auria's skills and bravery for survival. When they join a group of antislavery rebels allied with the dying hero Pericles, Auria finds true love and the self-knowledge to help her withstand tremendous challenges to spirit and body. Gilchrist's youthful enthusiasm for her heroine is evident throughout this appealing short novel, which should interest both adult and young adult readers. Recommended for public library fiction collections.
Starr E. Smith, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878058214
• ISBN-13: 978-0878058211
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,631,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining, November 29, 2004

By 

James Renner (Bowman, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anabasis: A Journey to the Interior (Paperback)

I also had to respond to the 1 star review. I have never read a Gilchrist book before, but am a huge fan of Stephen Pressfield's books and was inspired to read Green's and Kagin's accounts of the Greco-Persian and Peloponesian wars. I stumbled on this book by accident and found it to be tremendously entertaining. Yes, the characters might be developed more but I did not find this a serious distraction. I would compare it to Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea - some things are not fleshed out, but there are so many parts that are stunningly good that the book overall is quite worthwhile.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading if you're a Gilchrist fan, February 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Anabasis: A Journey to the Interior (Hardcover)

I'm writing this review partly because of the one-star review. My own view of the book is somewhat different. I have read all of Ellen Gilchrist's books and would say this one is not her best work, but still worth a read. As with other of her books, the social milieu and the relationships of the characters are where the interest and focus really lie. I have to believe she did plenty of research before writing this book because it mostly rings true. If you haven't read Gilchrist, you might want to give this one a try later, after you read Net of Jewels, or The Annunciation, or I Cannot Get You Close Enough.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shallow, September 9, 2001

By 

lanoitan (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anabasis: A Journey to the Interior (Paperback)

I read about half-way through this book and found that I just did not have the desire to finish it. I feel the author did not work hard enough at interpolating appropriate details to create an atmosphere. She probably put a lot of work in, but not enough for me.