Nero's secret police believe they have come on the first hints of a plot against the emperor's life. Once a promising and gifted friend of poets, pupil of the great Seneca, Nero has bloodied himself and grown fat on power. Crass, mediocre men--the military and the secret police--now have his ear. While he and his court give themselves to pleasures increasingly perverse and dissipated, the secret police close in on (or do they foment, or imagine?) the conspiracy of the men of letters.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Watergate in Rome,
By
This review is from: The conspiracy; a novel
It's inevitable for people to compare John Hersey's The Conspiracy to Thornton Wilder's Ides of March or Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God. The comparisons are apt: all three authors used their extensive knowledge of Roman history to write glosses on their own times. But Hersey differs from the other two in presenting a far darker tale of the cynical and corrupt use of power and the paranoid behavior engendered in those who exercise it. Taking as his setting the creation and suppression of the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero in 64-65 BC, Hersey provides a devastating commentary of the Nixon presidency and its response to the Watergate crisis.
Hersey's epislatory novel is told primarily through the exchange of memoranda between Tigellinus, co-Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, and various others, mainly Paenus, tribune of the secret police. These memoranda often include intercepted letters, especially those between the Stoic philosopher Seneca and his nephew, the poet Lucan. This technique allows Hersey to extend the number of voices in the first person and to provide insight into both sides of the conspiracy. Hersey is a first-rate historian as well as novelist. Many of the novel's letters are based on the writings of his characters and the events recorded are generally accurate. His primary sources are Tacitus' Annals and Suetonius' Life of Nero. Seneca's words often are quoted from his Moral Epistles, as are parts of Lucan's Pharsalia. Through the exchanges between Seneca and Lucan Hersey explores the demands of artistic expression and individual courage under tyranny, while those between Tigellinus and Paenus probe the nature of the corrupting influence of unbridled power. Reading this novel makes one wonder what dialogues between Robert Haldeman and Chuck Colson might have been like, as well as those between Sam Ervin and Ben Bradlee.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chronology Does Make Bozos of us All,
By glendower "glendower" (Kentucky, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Conspiracy (Hardcover)
I read this book a couple of times when it first came out. I thoroughly enjoyed the yarn, in some measure because of Hersey's device of telling the entire story through the exchange of notes/memos between two despicable men. Loaned my copy to a friend (or former friend) with predictable results. Therefore, I ordered another copy today.
In reading the reviews here I was amused and bemused to note their comparisons of the story to the end of the Nixon administration. The parallels between the two periods were engrossing (a bit predictable, perhaps) and absolutely and wholly wrong. While I was as disgusted as the next guy by Nixon and his cronies, it would seem only fair to point out that Hersey intended no comment on Watergate whatsoever. It would be impossible. He must have written "The Conspiracy" ca. 1969 or 70, because the book was published in 1972. I suppose you might look for parallels to the Johnson administration, but the events of Watergate began in 1972 and came to their climax with Nixon's resignation in 1974! Think again (or perhaps, at all) people !
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Continues Hersey's fine journalistic skills. . .,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Conspiracy (Hardcover)
in fictional form. This book is a thinly-disguised description of the Nixon presidency **preceding, and anticipating!** Watergate's paranoia.
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