Description: "Drawing on such unique sources as Thornton Wilder's unpublished letters, journals, and selections from the extensive annotations Wilder made years later in the margins of the book, Tappan Wilder's Afterword adds a special dimension to the reissue of this internationally acclaimed novel. The Ides of March, first published in 1948, is a brilliant epistolary novel set in Julius Caesar's Rome. Thornton Wilder called it "a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic." Through vividly imagined letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of history's most magnetic, elusive personalities. In this inventive narrative, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being. Wilder also resurrects the controversial figures surrounding Caesar -- Cleopatra, Catullus, Cicero, and others. All Rome comes crowding through these pages -- the Rome of villas and slums, beautiful women and brawling youths, spies and assassins." --
Brief description:
THORNTON WILDER (1897-1975) is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both drama (Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth) and fiction (The Bridge of San Luis Rey). He collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on Shadow of a Doubt, hiked the Alps with the heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney, received a Bronze Star for his service in World War II, and was credited with discovering Orson Welles. He was also a much-loved teacher, letter-writer (especially with Gertrude Stein), and public speaker--in four languages. Hello, Dolly! is based on his play The Matchmaker. Learn more about his extraordinary life and work at thorntonwilder.com.
Review Quotes:
"Wilder has brought to his character the warmth which was totally lacking in the Caesar of schoolbooks and Shakespeare, and in his hero's destruction there is the true catharsis." - Atlantic
"No one but a boldly imaginative writer would have ventured to do this, and no one without Mr. Wilder's extraordinary literary power and his adequate scholarship would have succeeded so brilliantly. The Ides of March is a fascinating book, and while it owes some of its fascination to the period with which it deals, perhaps the most exciting of our history, a great deal of its charm is entirely the author's, who manages to depict with high effectiveness a number of vivid, glowing and powerful personalities who meet in crowded conflict in the last few months of a great man's life." - New York Herald Tribune
"What distinguishes [The Ides of March] is a rich, shrewd and glowing characterization of Caesar's restless mind." - New York Times
"Not only the stature of Caesar but also his tragedy is suggested, and the tragedy is the more impressive because it is never stated. It arises from the total impression of this short, witty and extremely serious book." - Times Literary Supplement [London]
"Full of the wisdom of the ages--as well as satirical observations on man's political instability, loves, joys and terrors. . . . The Ides of March has that incomparable quality plus the qualities which make a good historical novel always popular. There is emotional intrigue in it, illicit as well as devoted love, and a rich and highly colored background." - Chicago Tribune