The Centurion [Hardcover]

Jan De Hartog (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Martinus Harinxma is now retired from the sea, but the story he narrates here is as exciting as the bestselling The Captain and The Commodore (in which he featured as protagonist), and certainly more wondrous. Prodded by his wife and inspired by T. S. Eliot's line, "Old men ought to be explorers," Martinus takes up dowsing, finds he has a gift for it and, being a Roman history enthusiast, swings a pendulum over a long trail of Roman remains, largely in Britain. In the process he deserts linear time and becomes, or seems to become, a Roman centurion in the turbulent fourth century A.D. who is following in the footsteps of his son, a praepositus (colonel) ordered to put down a savage Welsh uprising. The story swings between the contemporary world and a vividly re-created former era, exploring the mysterious bond of fatherhood and the enigma of life itself. De Hartog is a dowser, and his elegantly told and historically knowledgeable story has a psychic dimension that transcends the fiction genre. It's a spellbinding novel, a tour de force combination of mystical exploration and compelling narrative drive.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Martinus Harixma refuses to dedicate his retirement from a captain's life at sea to "boozing and snoozing." Dowzing, however, is something else. "Old men," he quotes from T.S. Eliot, "ought to be explorers," and Martinus, a conservative, skeptical realist, cannot resist the challenge of the paranormal. He dowzes not for water or oil but for 4th-century Rome. There he discovers and tries to comprehend the life a centurion whose views and experiences disconcertingly resemble his own. Alternating chapters record the adventures of Martinus and his quarry, each vibrant and suspenseful (though some readers--certainly this one--may weary of the question-and-answer exchanges between Martinus and his dowzing pendulum). De Hartog is a first-rate story teller, which inclines one to forgive the tedious and sentimental quasi-mysticism that at last overwhelms his often witty and wise old tar.
- Arthur Waldhorn, City Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd; 1St Edition edition (December 31, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0709039670
• ISBN-13: 978-0709039679
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,231,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Journeys (personal, physical, spiritual, emotional), December 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Centurion: A Novel (Hardcover)

I absolutely loved this novel!! It is the story of a retired naval commodore who takes journeys of another kind when he decides to take up dousing, and ends his journey with the best discovery of all--about himself! The book deals with spirituality without becoming preachy nor holier-than-thou, as the main character, Martinus, is forced to look at himself as seen through the eyes of a 4th century Roman centurion. Personal relationships, family relationships (and the love and frustration that go along with them) are explored, often with a sense of humor that will leave you laughing and crying at the same time because you will probably recognize yourself (or at least parts of yourself) and your family in his descriptions. As Martinus begins to question his long-held beliefs (not just the religious ones), so too will you.
I have since read other books by this author, but none have the same quality as this book. This is a book that I shall read again and again.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A soldier is a soldier, wherever and whenever . . ., August 10, 2003

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Centurion: A Novel (Hardcover)

While I'm aware of who the author is, I've never read any of his stuff, having a very limited interest in fiction about World War II. But this one caught my eye because I definitely *do* have an interest in historical novels about the ancient world. Martinus Harinxma, Dutch oceangoing tugboat captain and the protagonist of several of De Hartog's earlier books, is now in irascible retirement in the south of France, driving his wife and grown kids crazy, unable quite to come to grips with the lack of physical action seemingly incumbent on a man in his seventies. On a trip to Canada and the U.S., he somehow gets involved with dowsing and turns out to have a great knack for it. His wife suggests he combine his new-found talent with his longstanding interest in Roman military history, which leads them both on a sort if guided tour of southwest England in the present -- and also sixteen hundred years ago. Praepositus (Colonel) Mellarius, adopted son of the centurion of the title (the old man with whom Martinus seems to be linked), leaves the Rhine in the summer of 368 A.D. as part of an expedition to pacify a revolt in Britain, a campaign which will lead him to question his lethal way of life and which will end up being the death of him for political reasons. We watch the Colonel's weary trek while learning a good deal about the *real* and thoroughly unglamourous life of the middle-rank Roman army at a time when Christianity was becoming a major (and generally detrimental) influence on the empire and its governing institutions. And we watch while the Dutchman in 1987 asks the wrong questions of his pendulum, misinterprets the visions he receives, and refuses to believe anything that goes against his own prejudices. This book is somewhat more than that surface story, though. Mellarius and Martinus are each on their own quests, to "find themselves," as we used to say, to figure out where they belong in their respective worlds. The Colonel worries about having been an insufficiently good son to the adopted father he literally worships, while the tug captain worries about having been an inadequate father through all his lengthy absences at sea. De Hartog's style is one of simple narrative combined with highly evocative description, but he certainly understands character, as well as Roman Britain.