{"product_id":"augustus-isbn-9781590178218","title":"Augustus","description":"WINNER OF THE 1973 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD \u003cbr\u003e By the Author of \u003ci\u003eStoner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eAugustus\u003c\/i\u003e, his third great novel, John Williams took  on an entirely new challenge, a historical narrative set in classical Rome, exploring the life of the founder of the Roman Empire. To tell the story, Williams turned to the epistolary novel, a genre that was new to him, transforming and transcending it just as he did the western in \u003ci\u003eButcher’s Crossing\u003c\/i\u003e and the campus novel in \u003ci\u003eStoner\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eAugustus\u003c\/i\u003e is the final triumph of a writer who has come to be recognized around the world as an American master.“The finest historical novel ever written by an American.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[In \u003ci\u003eAugustus\u003c\/i\u003e] John Williams re-creates the Roman  Empire from the death of Julius Caesar to the last days  of Augustus, the machinations of the court, the Senate, and the people, from the sickly boy to the sickly man who almost dies during expeditions to what would seem to be the ruthless ruler. He uses an epistolary format, and in the end all these voices, like a collage, meld together around the main character . . . Read it in conjunction  with Robert Graves’s more flamboyant\u003ci\u003e I, Claudius\u003c\/i\u003e and Marguerite Yourcenar’s \u003ci\u003eMemoirs of Hadrian\u003c\/i\u003e.” —Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A novel of extraordinary range, yet of extraordinary minuteness, that manages never to sacrifice one quality for the other.” —\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Williams has fashioned an always engaging, psychologically convincing work of fiction—a consistent and well-realized portrait.” —Thomas Lask, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Readers of both \u003ci\u003eStoner\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eButcher’s Crossing\u003c\/i\u003e will here encounter an altogether new version of the John Williams they’ve come to know: \u003ci\u003eAugustus\u003c\/i\u003e is an epistolary novel set in classical Rome. It’s a rare genius who can reinvent himself in his final work and earn high praise for doing so.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eAugustus\u003c\/i\u003e is gripping, brimming with life.\" —Dan Piepenbring, \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review Daily\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This novel of an aged emperor will be intensely illuminating to anyone who is ready to put modern morality aside for a moment in order to acquire a little knowledge of himself or herself … The genius of this astonishing American writer is that he shows how lives that seem utterly strange can be very like our own.” —John Gray, \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Williams \u003c\/b\u003e(1922–1994) was born and raised in northeast Texas. Despite a talent for writing and acting, Williams flunked out of a local junior college after his first year. He reluctantly joined the war effort, enlisting in the Army Air Corps, and managed to write a draft of his first novel while there. Once home, Williams found a small publisher for the novel and enrolled at the University of Denver, where he was eventually to receive both his B.A. and M.A., and where he was to return as an instructor in 1954. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He remained on the staff of the creative writing program at the University of Denver until his retirement in 1985. During these years, he was an active guest lecturer and writer, editing an anthology of English Renaissance poetry and publishing two volumes of his own poems, as well as three novels, \u003ci\u003eButcher’s Crossing\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e Stoner\u003c\/i\u003e, and the National Book Award–winning \u003ci\u003eAugustus\u003c\/i\u003e (all published as NYRB Classics).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e Daniel Mendelsohn \u003c\/b\u003ewas born in 1960 and studied classics at the University of Virginia and at Princeton, where he received his doctorate. His essays and reviews appear regularly in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e. His books include \u003ci\u003eThe Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million\u003c\/i\u003e; a memoir, \u003ci\u003eThe Elusive Embrace\u003c\/i\u003e; and the collection \u003ci\u003eWaiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture\u003c\/i\u003e, published by New York Review Books. He teaches at Bard College.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300612853989,"sku":"NP9781590178218","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590178218.jpg?v=1767721957","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/augustus-isbn-9781590178218","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}