Heliodorus of Emesa

This is from the 3rd century (though some dispute) for my personal century challenge.

The Aethiopica is a Greek romance story of the wondrously beautiful Theagenes and Chariclea. The title comes from the fact that the beginning and end of the story takes place in Ethiopia. Little is known about the author, and this is the only work attributed to him.

This story is unique because it starts in the middle of the story and the plot is made known by the characters recounting their history in show more dialog and narratives.

We start with Theagenes wounded, many dead men around and Chariclea waiting for Theagenes to die so she can take her own life. They are captured by pirates, meet bandits and many other characters along the way.

Some of the narratives are long and feel like its slowing the story, but overall the story is fast paced with a rapid succession of events. I found only half of the story in an easy to read modern form of English. The rest of the story was in an older form of English which was much more difficult to read. show less

Aethiopica is an early Greek Romance. It tells the tale of two lovers: Chariclea, daughter of Ethiopian Royalty and Theagenes. The plot begins at what seems to be halfway through the progression of events, and much of the story is told as tales by other characters (stories within the stories). The poor lovers always seem to fall from one misfortune into the next and of course all is resolved at the very last minute. It’s very dramatic, fast-paced, and surprisingly easy to read for such an show more old text.

I thought it was entertaining enough but not something I really felt that I was missing out on by not having read it previously. I do always find it amusing in these older romances how just the mere sight of someone from across the room is enough to make characters want to marry each other. It seemed like these two lovers were cursed by being so beautiful that they couldn’t walk down the street without someone wanting to kidnap them and/or force them into marriage or relationships. I would say formulaic and unoriginal but since it was one of the earliest (maybe the earliest) of Greek Romances, it can be considered an original and likely drove the structure of other similar romances. show less

4 down, 997 to go. This was not a very satisfactory experience at all, and as as a matter of fact, gets a full star only because if I leave the star off, one might think I forgot to apply a rating. I had no idea what was happening at any point, save for a few paragraphs that may have been coherent. The book went back and forth in time, without advising the reader exactly when this was happening. I was so lost and confused that I checked reviews to figure out what was generally happening at show more certain points in the narrative, because I sure couldn't tell just by reading the darn thing! There wasn't even clever wordplay as a redeeming value. I hope this is the nadir of the 1,001 book reading project. It better be. I certainly won't be able to withstand too many more experiences like this, which is an insult to the word "experience." show less

In this ancient Greek romance/adventure novel, Theagenes and Chariclea, two beautiful youths who are in love, are forced by various circumstances to wander through Greece, Egypt, and Ethiopia and face one perilous situation after another before being granted a happy ending by the gods. I found this novel to be fairly similar to the other ancient Greek texts on the 1001 list. It wasn’t great, but it was interesting to experience a different culture’s literature. The only real complaint I show more have is that the paragraphs in my translation were too long, which made the book more difficult to read than it should have been. show less