Contemporary Literary Criticism | Sutcliff, Rosemary - Carolyn Horovitz

CAROLYN HOROVITZ

Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth combines the presentation of the historic era of the Roman occupation of Britain with an acute sense of place. A feeling of belonging to a certain landscape becomes a vital part of the plot structure. She portrays remarkably the conflict between the Celtic tribal customs and the Roman way of imposing its own civilization wherever it went. The two elements are finally welded into an inseparable unity by one force of nature—the country itself…. Place works its will, not only on the buildings of the Romans but on the characters of the Romans as well. The hero of the story, Marcus, is at the end of the novel free to go where he wishes, back to the loved land of his childhood. But he elects to stay; Britain has become his home. This conclusion is no mere noble decision but the inevitable result of the strong sense of place inherent in this novel from the beginning. By the time the novel is finished,...

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