Grass Crown

Grass Crown
by Colleen McCullough

Grass Crown
List Price: $16.99
Our Price: $7.69
You Save: $9.30 (55%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.27 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Colleen McCullough
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-11-11
ISBN: 0061582395
Number of pages: 1152
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Book Reviews of Grass Crown

Book Review: Corona, Indeed...
Summary: 5 Stars

Second in the "Master's of Rome" series, McCullough continues her brilliantly researched saga of the ancient Roman republic.

The Grass Crown of the title refers to a battlefield award for bravery that was very rarely given, and thus carried enormous significance in the legions of Rome. Gaius Marius is now at he height of his power and influence, and Lucius Cornelius Sulla is beginning his meteroic career as a general and a pivotal figure in politics. McCullough paces the important events and plots her work with her usual thoroughness. The main characters are well fleshed out: Sulla is a brilliant and subtle man driven by ambition and despair. Marius is well matched, his ambition highlighted by the relative unimportance of his social status.

To convincingly illustrate and then remind readers of the books' main themes must have been an exhausting task in itself. This is a long book, and could easily become monotonous or confusing to a reader lacking familiarity with the time period. McCullough tends to use dialogue to both explain events and motivations, and to remind the reader at intervals of exactly what is transpiring and why. The books' dialogue is thus often stilted or didactic, and this contrivance and lack of brevity detracts from the stories' momentum. Yet this is a small price for a very worthy objective: events maintain their proper importance, characters act with clarity and consistency, and McCullough manages a rather miraculous adherence to the actual historical events of the period.

Judicious history, told in a riveting fashion; this is excellent historical fiction.

Summary of Grass Crown

New York Times bestselling author Colleen McCullough returns us to an age of magnificent triumphs, volcanic passions, and barbaric cruelties.

Throughout the Western world, great kingdoms have fallen and despots lay crushed beneath the heels of Rome's advancing legions. But now internal rebellion threatens the stability of the mighty Republic. An aging, ailing Gaius Marius, heralded conqueror of Germany and Numidia, longs for that which was prophesied many years before: an unprecedented seventh consulship of Rome. It is a prize to be won only through treachery and with blood, pitting Marius against a new generation of assassins, power-seekers, and Senate intriguers?and setting him at odds with the ambitious, tormented Lucius Cornelius Sulla, once Marius's most trusted right-hand man, now his most dangerous rival.

Historical Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Historical Books
Pirate Latitudes: A Novel ImagePirate Latitudes: A Novel
by Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-11-24; Roughcut; Book
Best price: $2.44
Price in other shops: $27.99
The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel ImageThe Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel
by Louise Erdrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.83
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Last Witchfinder: A Novel ImageThe Last Witchfinder: A Novel
by James Morrow
William Morrow; Published: 2006-03-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $25.95
Zorro ImageZorro
by Isabel Allende
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-05-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $3.07
Price in other shops: $39.95
The Hot Kid: A Novel ImageThe Hot Kid: A Novel
by Elmore Leonard
William Morrow; Published: 2005-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1) ImageThe Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)
Mass Market Paperback; Book
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3) ImageBones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3)
by Conn Iggulden
Harper Collins Canada; Published: 2008; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.70
March ImageMarch
by Geraldine Brooks
Penguin Books; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Emperor (Emperor 1) ImageEmperor (Emperor 1)
by Conn Iggulden
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2003-06-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Girl With a Pearl Earring ImageGirl With a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins Audio; Published: 2002-06-17; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $86.82
Similar Books and other products
The First Man in Rome ImageThe First Man in Rome
by Colleen McCullough
William Morrow & Co; Published: 1990-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.74
Price in other shops: $22.95
Claudius the God: And His Wife Messalina ImageClaudius the God: And His Wife Messalina
by Robert Graves
Vintage; Published: 1989-10-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.78
Price in other shops: $17.00
I, Claudius From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius Born 10 B.C. Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 (Vintage International) ImageI, Claudius From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius Born 10 B.C. Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 (Vintage International)
by Robert Graves
Vintage; Published: 1989-10-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.46
Price in other shops: $16.00
Caesar: Let the Dice Fly  (Masters of Rome, Book 5) ImageCaesar: Let the Dice Fly (Masters of Rome, Book 5)
by Colleen McCullough
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 1999-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $39.94
Antony and Cleopatra: A Novel (Masters of Rome) ImageAntony and Cleopatra: A Novel (Masters of Rome)
by Colleen McCullough
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.71
Price in other shops: $16.00
The October Horse: A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra ImageThe October Horse: A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra
by Colleen McCullough
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2007-11-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.61
Price in other shops: $16.95
Caesar's Women ImageCaesar's Women
by Colleen McCullough
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2008-11-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.05
Price in other shops: $16.99
Caesar: A Novel ImageCaesar: A Novel
by Colleen McCullough
William Morrow; Published: 1997-12-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $43.58
Fortune's Favorites ImageFortune's Favorites
by Colleen McCullough
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2008-11-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.76
Price in other shops: $16.99
The First Man in Rome ImageThe First Man in Rome
by Colleen McCullough
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2008-11-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.02
Price in other shops: $16.99