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Claudius the God
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins
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On 29 March 1849, the 10-year-old Maharajah of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great Fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company in a formal act of submission not only swathes of the richest land in India but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light.
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Fascinating
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By: Anita Anand, and others
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Cleopatra
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- Narrated by: Robin Miles
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Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order.
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Approach this book with caution
- By GolfZilla on 12-02-10
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Rome's Last Citizen
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Unfortunate
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This enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political, economic, and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence's slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.
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Laundry list of names
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Less than 40 years after England's golden age under Elizabeth I, the country was at war with itself. Split between loyalty to the Crown or to Parliament, war raged on English soil. Its casualties were immense. At the head of the disintegrating kingdom was King Charles I. In this vivid portrait - informed by previously unseen manuscripts, including royal correspondence between the king and his queen - Leanda de Lisle depicts a man who was principled and brave but fatally blinkered.
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Enlightening Stuart history
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Elizabeth was crowned at 25 after a tempestuous childhood as a bastard and an outcast, but it was only when she reached 50 and all hopes of a royal marriage were dashed that she began to wield real power in her own right. For 25 years she had struggled to assert her authority over advisers who pressed her to marry and settle the succession; now, she was determined not only to reign but also to rule.
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worth the credit
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Poisoner, despot, necromancer - the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds - from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henry, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. Based on thousands of private letters, it is a remarkable account of one of the most influential women to wear a crown.
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Narrator didn't get one name right
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The Romanovs
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This is the intimate story of 20 tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence, and wild extravagance, with a global cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries, and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin.
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Scholarly but gripping
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The Twelve Caesars was written based on the information of eyewitnesses and public records. It conveys a very accurate picture of court life in Rome and contains some of the raciest and most salacious material to be found in all of ancient literature. The writing is clear, simple and easy to understand, and the numerous anecdotes of juicy scandal, bitter court intrigue, and murderous brigandage easily hold their own against the most spirited content of today's tabloids.
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A pleasure to read...
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By: Suetonius
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What listeners say about Claudius the God
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- Darwin8u
- 12-27-12
The Deified King of Historical Fiction
I, Claudius and Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina are two of the greatest novels of historical fiction EVER. Probably the only writers who come close to Grave's mastery of history and literature are (in no particular order): Gore Vidal (Lincoln, Burr, etc), Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies) and Norman Mailer (The Executioner's Song, Harlot's Ghost).
Obviously, Shakespeare is the master of historical fiction/drama but he is so obviously the deified king of this that the Shakespearian 'sun needs no inscription to distinguish him from darkness'.
Grave's dilogy must be intimidating to a historian of Imperial Rome. The personality of Claudius has been so deeply set by Graves that I'm not sure any tweaking by modern historians will be able to fool with Grave's fool. The Genius of 'I, Claudius' and 'Glaudius the God' is derived from Graves' ability to create such an amazingly rich and deep literary character. The closest I've come across in recent times is Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell. Books like these are rare and seem to grow more amazing with each year.
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26 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Wolfpacker
- 07-21-08
Don't Stop With I Claudius
This is really I Claudius, Vol II. The story continues. The story moves like that of a good novel. The history is good to learn while enjoying a good read. You realize from reading between the lines and from comparing to what historians believe that this account is quite biased toward Claudius. But, this is after all written in the form of an autobiography, so what would you expect? The subplot of Herod is an interesting one.
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20 people found this helpful
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Overall
- C. D. Mitchell
- 02-16-09
As good as the first...
The books makes a fine sequel to "I, Claudius," which I've already reviewed as being excellent. If you enjoyed that book, then you will obviously enjoy this fine piece of historical fiction.
This is a fictional autobiography of Claudius, fourth emperor of the Roman Empire. It is a narration of those events which transpired after Claudius became emperor. He has survived the reigns of the expedient Augustus, the perverse Tiberius, and the insane Caligula, where few others in his line have. But how long can he survive his wives?
Claudius is a sympathetic emperor and the narrator is entirely believable as Claudius himself. Attached to the end of this audiobook are readings from translations of Suetonius, Tacitus, and Cassius Dio regarding the death of Claudius as well as all that remains of Seneca's Apocolocyntosis. The translations are somewhat stilted but provide an interesting contrast between Graves' depiction of Claudius and those of the Roman Senators.
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- Barry
- 08-27-12
A necessary sequel
I suppose there was no way Graves could have not written this given the success of the first book and the sense of having broken off in the middle. From the great BBC miniseries, this was the part I best remembered and looked forward to. Somehow the magic wasn't there for me. No longer the observant outsider, Claudius seems reduced to a more pedantic reciting of events. Most of the colorful characters from the first book are dead by now. There's still plenty of intrigue, but Claudius is now the victim of a good deal of it and unable to relate it with the same perspective as when he was just passing on gossip. The naive wonder and delight of the first book is replaced by a kind of gloomy poignancy. Still, I wouldn't have skipped this for the world; not after having read the first one.
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- Nothing really matters
- 08-15-15
Fabulous sequel to I, Claudius
I enjoyed "I, Claudius" so much I bought and started this book immediately on finishing it. I'm very glad I did. I enjoyed "Claudius the God" even more.
"Claudius the God", like "I, Claudius" is top-shelf historical fiction, beautifully written, with perfect narration. What's better in this second book is that Claudius really comes into his own, grows as a character, and fulfills his potential.
I felt immense relief when Claudius gained control of his fate and really enjoyed where the author took the story from that point on. The new-ish (no pun intended) character of Herod is a great addition. The ending is brilliant (SPOILER ALERT:) though by the time Claudius dies, I found myself wishing it could have ended more better for him, his loved ones, and those loyal to poor old “King Log”.
I highly, highly recommend this book.
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- Bryan
- 04-02-13
The Reign and Death of Claudius
In this follow up to the masterpiece I, Claudius, we go through the subsequent history of Claudius as he was essentially appointed Emperor of Rome by the Praetorian Guards. Claudius is apparently the one person in Rome who didn't want to become Emperor. However, the political class in Rome had already been yoked to the loss of the Republic and no one actually had the guts to stand up and say no. The only message from the Senate was one asking him not to take the title until they had voted to give it to him.
Claudius had survived his murderous kin by always staying in the background and acting the idiot. However, he turned out to be a very conscientious and capable ruler. He completed two new aqueducts into the city of Rome and under his personal command the Island of Britain was actually brought into the Roman Empire. Although Julius Caesar had visited the place, Claudius conquered it and began the Romanization process which lasted for almost 400 years.
A lot of the story is how his wife Messalina plotted behind his back, slept with practically everyone in Rome, and eventually launched a comically absurd coup against him. Claudius eventually realized that if the Romans were to have their Republic back, they would need to be ruled by the completely incompetent. Thus he appointed his grand nephew Nero to be his successor, and once this was done his niece (who he had married) had him assassinated.
Robert Graves continues his masterful storytelling with this historical novel. Of course, this one seems a little smaller than I, Claudius because it focuses on the one person and his actions, but this is certainly a great addition to anyone's library.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Bruce
- 01-11-09
Must repeat- This is Fiction, This is Fiction
I really enjoyed this novel. I did keep forgetting that it was fiction. It is easy to do that with both novels. Before thinking you learned something, look it up, it may just be the Author's imagination. That isn't a flaw as long as your remember this is Historical Fiction based historical characters.
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- Mountain K9iner
- 04-07-14
Must read after I Claudius
What did you like best about this story?
This is the sequel to Robert Graves's well-known I Claudius. Listen to I Claudius first (I prefer the Nelson Runger performance -- he captures well Graves's portrayal of Claudius as a reluctant and ill-prepared emperor). After listening to I Claudius, you will want to know what happened next -- or at least how Graves portrays it. And yes, it is largely fictional, though based on period sources. Even what we call "history" is, at it's best, a kind of fiction in that it is only as good as the sources and only as reliable as the conjectures we make to stitch the "facts" together.
I gave this four stars instead of five for story -- it is not quite as compelling as I Claudius, but still quite worthwhile.
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- Ms Dorothy Kahn
- 10-29-12
A classic story impeccably read
Where does Claudius the God rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
It is among my top ten
Who was your favorite character and why?
The eponymous Claudius who as the narrator takes us into the privileged but often fatal household of the Julio-Claudian Imperial family.
Which scene was your favorite?
Claudius' dunking in the Rhone during the reign of Caligula
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes, but I really couldn't manage it
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-01-21
fantastic, but lacks in the original charm
The first book, "I, Claudius" has far more charm, and the ending of this story is lacking. It feels like Robert Graves gave up on the last 5 years of Claudius' life making for an empty conclusion where the political discourse of the time is lost.
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