The Roman [Hardcover]

Mika Toimi Waltari (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 572 pages
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books (June 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568494866
• ISBN-13: 978-1568494869
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Living in Rome during Nero's reign, September 1, 2002

By 

lanoitan (United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Roman (Hardcover)

If you enjoy well researched historical novels, I would recommend this one to you. The fly on the wall is fictional character, Minutus, a friend of Nero's. What I enjoyed was getting to meet Nero, Seneca, St. Paul, and St. Peter and what it was like to see the Druids and the early Christians. Before I read this book I only knew 4 things about ancient Rome: that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, that the early Christians were thrown to the lions, that Nero's mother killed her husband so that Nero could become emperor, and that Nero had his male lover's genitals removed and then married him. This book put all those things in context for me. At times the reading was a bit slow and difficult to follow, but on the whole I found it an enjoyable and educational experience. Not as good as I remember "the Egyptian" being, but nevertheless very worthwhile.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping historical drama, July 9, 2001

By 

brx "brxx" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Roman (Hardcover)

Minutus, son of Marcus ("Hero" of the Secret Kingdom) tells us about his life in the Rome of Nero, the Burning of the city and the killing of the Christians. Meanwhile he himself pursues his own business, love-affairs and political intrigues. I've read this book a few times now and it grows with each reading. It is very cleverly constructed, the details of roman life are breathtaking and Minutus himself offers a new side of his character each time you pick up this book. Very worthwhile reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wickedly funny!, August 8, 2008

By 

Remus - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Roman (Hardcover)

What is Mika Waltari up to in THE ROMAN? There is a very dry Finnish sense of humor at play here, exploiting the ironies of a narrator who is an utter moral vaccum, unable to perceive the truth of anything going on around him. Put such a cipher in the poisonous milieu of Poppaea, Agrippina, Tigellinus, et. al, and watch out! When our "hero" is charged by Nero with devising "entertainments" involving the torture and slaughter of Christians scapegoated for the great fire, his chief worry is that the jaded audience will grow bored. I suspect a lot of THE ROMAN is really about Waltari's take on the Nazis and perhaps Stalinist Russia, with all their bureaucratic double-talk covering the unspeakable ugliness of mass murder. One reviewer complains that THE ROMAN goes the route of QUO VADIS, with a pro-Christian slant, but I think the book is far more subtle, complex, and ambiguous than that. Beware of abridged editions (like the US paperback that was published in the 1960s). THE ROMAN is preceded by a novel about the narrator's father and his encounter with the early Christians, THE SECRET OF THE KINGDOM (which I have not read).