Emperor's Babe [Hardcover]

Bernardine Evaristo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2001

Funny, funky, seductive and lyrical, Bernardine Evaristo's novel in verse is a triumph of imaginative writing. Londinium, 211AD. A city of slum tenements and sumptuous villas. A city where the currency is often sex, where children go to work aged five, and marriage is a career move. The striking Zuleika, feisty daughter of Sudanese immigrants, child-bride of an ageing Roman businessman, bored with villa life, bored with sex, bored with her ever-absent husband, meets the Emperor Septimus Severus and her life changes forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Employing the same narrative verse style that served her so well in her debut, Lara, British writer Evaristo travels back in time to tell the story of Zuleika, a libidinous but frustrated Sudanese woman who comes of age in a Roman-conquered London in A.D. 211. Spotted at the age of 11 by rich Roman senator Lucius Aurelius Felix, "a man thrice my age and thrice my girth," she lands in the lap of luxury when a wedding quickly takes place. But Felix's lack of libido soon turns the marriage into a prison, and when he begins to travel, jazzy teenager Zuleika hits the social scene in the urban maze that is Londinium and receives some flattering attention from a visiting Roman emperor, Septimus Severus. The two begin a brief but torrid affair until Evaristo wraps up her thin plot by sending Severus off to war as Felix returns to find that the entire community knows about the affair. Plot problems aside, most of this is an excuse for Evaristo to stretch her poetic muscles as she creates a beautiful, passionate African-cum-Roman woman as seen through the imagination of a highly liberated and sexual 21st-century poet. Despite the occasional burst of purple verse, she succeeds admirably in bringing a difficult and treacherous conceit to fruition, liberally indulging in irreverent asides, vivid vernacular speech and clever puns. The generally high quality of the poetry overshadows the failure of the book to develop into a genuine, full-fledged novel. This is a vividly imagined albeit distinctly modern look at a woman's role in Roman times by a talented writer with a fertile mind and a playful spirit.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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

From Library Journal

This quasi-historical novel, written in free verse, offers an irreverent, fun, and amusingly anachronistic portrait of Roman London circa C.E. 210. It is Bridget Jones's Diary meets Austin Powers meets The Fall of the Roman Empire. In swinging "Londinium," the chic Romans often don Armani togas and Gucci duds for their bacchanalian soir‚es. At the age of 11, Zuleika our free-spirited narrator, the daughter of a nouveau-riche immigrant African merchant is married off to an older, mostly absent Roman businessman looking for a trophy wife. While her husband is away, Zuleika (also called Zuky-dot, Zee, Za Za, etc.) manages to fill up her otherwise mundane existence by cavorting with old friends (including a cross-dressing nightclub owner), assembling her personal posse, mourning her lost youth, scheming against disrespectful servants, reading and writing poetry, and eventually having an affair with the Libyan-born Emperor Septimus Severus when he visits Londinium. The scene in which Zuleika attends a gladiatorial battle is not to be missed. British-born Evaristo's second novel (after Lara) is consistently amusing, clever, and inventive and even makes an indirect comment on present-day multicultural London. Recommended for all public and academic libraries. Roger A. Berger, Everett Community Coll., WA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (June 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241141141
• ISBN-13: 978-0241141144
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,090,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing lyrical prose -- and funny!!, April 29, 2002

By 

"jroen10" (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Emperor's Babe (Hardcover)

It's been a while since I've been knocked off my feet by a book in way The Emperor's Babe did. Maybe not since I read Rimbaud at highschool... Proverbs keep flying through my head when I want to describe the book: funny, intelligent, sophisticated, heart-warming, etc. etc. What struck me first (of course) was the verse. Steady two line most of the time, but changing pace in more intimate sections and by that changing atmosphere at once. The book is somewhat of a classic lyrical epic and bc of that rhythm it grips you from the first pair of lines, and (I have to say this) it swings!!

Second: the main character, Zuleika, is a welcome apparition in present-day literature. Zuleika is tough, smart and gets what she wants. No whining like Bridget J. or all the other 30-ish single women-books and definitely nothing of the "I've lived through it all" Oprah-books. Zuleika's got a certain sense of girl-power (sorry for that word) and that makes you love her from the start.

And then the story: London 211. It's dirty, rotten and sexy. But that's all I say, just go and read. And after that go and look for her first book "Lara". You won't be sorry...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poetry that reads like prose, July 24, 2005

By 

Stephen Rimmer (São Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Emperor's Babe (Paperback)

I had to read this book for a seminar I was going to attend. Not being a great poetry reader I did not expect to enjoy it. I read the book in one session, and after the first few pages did not remember that I was reading poetry. It flows really easily, the language making it very easy to dive into the strange world of the author's Roman London. The modern slang and approach make the setting familiar in some ways, and then the very different customs of the period bring the reader up short. The scene set at the local "games" needs a strong stomach to read. Highly recommended.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars and now for something completely different, January 14, 2003

By 

Kimberley Wilson (VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Emperor's Babe (Hardcover)

I bought this book with low expectation for both the poetry and the story. I'm happy to say that I was wrong. Emperor's Babe is sexy, stylish and just the most original book I've read in ages. The heroine is a tough little customer, a hip Afro Roman living in Londinium who meets the man of her dreams and loses everything else. By the time you come to last page I promise that you will be moved by her story.