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The Greek Treasure tells the story of 47 year old Henry Schliemann who marries a young Greek girl and then spends the remainder of his life unearthing the city of Troy and the royal tombs of Mycenae. Against all odds, Schliemann finds tremendous treasure where scholars said there wouldn't be anything of worth - - and yet, despite his successes, he continually confronts challenges from governments and academicians that undermine his work.

The book is historical fiction and based on true people. Truthfully, I might have given it one star were it not for the quality of the research. Though I was left wondering - - why make it fiction at all? It read like non-fiction, and the detailed parts that came to life were all clearly non-fictional. The part that was probably fictionalized - - the story of Schliemann's marriage - - was poorly done.

Why only 2 stars? Well, you only have to look at a book like Pillars of the Earth to realize that it is eminently possible to take a boring topic (cathedral building) and turn it into the basis for a pretty brilliant fictional tale. The Greek Treasure takes a boring topic (digging up ancient ruins) and makes sure it is completely unpunctuated by anything of interest. How many pages of descriptions of digging and dug up items can one bear? The story totally lacked suspense, and it was repetitive . . .first he dug at X, then he dug at Y, then he wanted to dig at Z but they wouldn't let him, so he tried to dig at X again.

In between digging, Henry would fight with various authorities for permission to dig. Somehow, reading about ridiculous levels of government bureaucracy is hardly interesting no matter how unreasonable the various governments are.

The one part of the plot that could have been enhanced to drive the story was the marriage between Henry and the 20 years younger Sophia. Unfortunately, the marriage never really came to life. You could sense some unhappiness on the part of Sophia and some lunacy on the part of Henry, but it was rarely drawn out into scenes from their marriage. It seemed to be narrated and the pace was off.

All in all, I really really wanted to quit reading this one at around page 200 - - but I have trouble not finishing what I start so I slogged through it - - skimming about 50 or so pages - - and I just never felt anything for the characters nor could I generate any enthusiasm for reading about gold coins and jewelry.

Dull, dull, dull.

So disappointing from the author who brought us The Agony and The Ecstasy which I absolutely loved. ( )

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I enjoyed this book a lot when I read it in th 80's. I liked reading novels of the period of ancient Greece and knew nothing of Henry Schliemann, who as an amateur archeologist, unearthed the remains of Troy dispite ridicule from the "pro's" of the time using literature of the ancient times to find clues.

Mr Schliemann made two or three small fortunes for himself before tackling Troy for fun and could stay in a room and learn a language in about 6 weeks as I remember.

Very interesting story. ( )

Told from the viewpoint of Schliemann's young Greek wife, Sophia, this is one of Stone's less-heralded biographical novels, but it has a charm and lack of pretence not always present in some of Stone's more famous works. Takes a fairly sympathetic view of Schliemann's character, perhaps naive since Schliemann's reputation has been largely destroyed by a generation of scholarship. Once revered as the Father of Archaeology, Schliemann is now regarded as a cheat, a fraud, a ruthless autocrat who betrayed many who had trusted him, and perhaps most damningly of all, as the destroyer of Homer's Troy, rather than its discoverer. However, Stone is charmingly ignorant of all this, and his Schliemann is a volcanic, obssessive, driven individual, but also a self-made man who braved ridicule and bureacratic inertia to make what is after Carter's discovery of Tutankamun the greatest find in Western archaeology and solve a 2500 year old mystery. ( )