The Dream of Scipio (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Iain Pears
- First Published: 2002
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The mid-fourth century; the fourteenth century; 1928- 1944
- Setting: Avignon, France, and its vicinity
- Principal Characters: Julien Barneuve, Manlius Hippomanes, Olivier de Noyen, Julia Bronsen, Sophia Anaxia, Rebecca
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Philosophy or philosophers, Politics, France or French people, Twentieth century, 1940’s, Betrayal, World War II, 1920’s, 1930’s, Faith, Truthfulness and falsehood, Greek or Roman times, Fourteenth century, Fourth century, Holy Roman Empire
- Locales: Avignon, France
Iain Pears’s The Dream of Scipio is a novel about the movement of time. In one unalterable moment, a great civilization can cease to be great or an individual seemingly destined for greatness may discover only obscurity and possibly oblivion. Pears’s book borrows the famous title of the disquisition on the nature of fame that appears in Cicero’s De republica (51 b.c.e.; On the State, 1817), the Roman rhetorician’s own title benignly pilfered from the Greek philosopher Plato. The fourteenth century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer adapted Plato’s format to his...
[The entire page is 1696 words long]
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