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The Fall of Troy - Peter Ackroyd
The Fall of Troy
by: (author)
3.50 40
Fakes, forgeries and plagiarism abound in Ackroyd’s brilliant historical novel, set in the 19th century during the excavation of the Bronze Age site of Troy. “I cannot wait to bring you to the plain of Troy. To show you the place where Hector and Achilles fought. To show you the palace of Priam.... show more
Fakes, forgeries and plagiarism abound in Ackroyd’s brilliant historical novel, set in the 19th century during the excavation of the Bronze Age site of Troy.

“I cannot wait to bring you to the plain of Troy. To show you the place where Hector and Achilles fought. To show you the palace of Priam. And the walls where the Trojan women watched their warriors in battle with the invader. It will stir your blood, Sophia.”

Sophia Chrysanthis is only 16 when the German archaeologist, Herr Obermann, comes wooing: he wants a Greek bride who knows her Homer. Sophia passes his test, and soon she is tying canvas sacking to her legs so that she can kneel on the hard ground in the trench, removing the earth methodically, identifying salient points, lifting out amphorae and bronze vessels without damaging them.

“Archaeology is not a science,” Obermann says. “It is an art.”

Obermann is very good at the art of archaeology — perhaps too good at it. The atmosphere at Troy is tense and mysterious. Sophia finds herself increasingly baffled by the past . . . not only the remote past that Obermann is so keen to share with her in the form of his beloved epics of the Trojan wars, but also his own, recent past — a past that he has chosen to hide from her.

But she, too, is very good at the art of archaeology . . .
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Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9780701179113 (0701179112)
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Pages no: 256
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
Viking2917's books
Viking2917's books rated it
3.0 The Fall of Troy: A Novel
Fictionalized story of Heinrich Schliemann, the passionate amateur archaeologist who excavated (plundered?) a putative site for Troy. Ackroyd's Schliemann is larger than life and good fun. But Ackroyd has taken so many liberties with the actual life story of Schliemann, that while it's a fun, quick,...
Sarah's Library
Sarah's Library rated it
3.0 The Fall of Troy by Peter Ackroyd
For the first two thirds of the book I found this really quite slow and a bit of a struggle to stick with (the only reason I was able to keep going was the fact that it was only a couple of hundred pages long and I felt that I would be giving up too easily if I couldn't finish a book that short). Th...
Sarah's Library
Sarah's Library rated it
3.5 The Fall of Troy by Peter Ackroyd
For the first two thirds of the book I found this really quite slow and a bit of a struggle to stick with (the only reason I was able to keep going was the fact that it was only a couple of hundred pages long and I felt that I would be giving up too easily if I couldn't finish a book that short). Th...
Kalliope Muse speaks to me
Kalliope Muse speaks to me rated it
5.0 The Fall of Troy
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. It felt like flying, may be because I practically read it in the course of two medium-length flights.As there are many good reviews of this book, I will not extend myself too much.Ackroyd is a master teller. He polishes the fascination that his amateur arch...
Bettie's Books
Bettie's Books rated it
3.0
Obermann is based on Schliemann. Quirky, however I wasn't that keen on any of the characters. 3* Hawksmoor4* Shakespeare1* The Lambs of London3* The Fall of Troy4* Chatterton3* The House of Dr Dee5* Dickens2* The Plato Papers4* Wilkie Collins
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