Book
The glory of the empire : a novel, a history / Jean D'Ormesson ; translated from the French by Barbara Bray ; introduction by Daniel Mendelsohn.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781590179659
- ISBN: 159017965X
- Physical Description: xviii, 374 pages, xxii : genealogical table ; 21 cm.
- Publisher: New York : New York Review Books, [2016]
- Copyright: ©2016
Content descriptions
| General Note: | Translation from the French of: La Gloire de l'Empire. "Originally published in French as La Gloire de l'Empire. This translation first published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc."--Title page verso. Indexes on separately numbered pages at back of book. |
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and indexes on pages [357]-374. |
| Summary, etc.: | "The rich and absorbing history of an extraordinary empire, at one point a rival to Rome. Rulers such as Prince Basil of Onessa, who founded the Empire but whose treacherous ways made him a byword for infamy, and the romantic Alexis the Bastard, who dallied in the fleshpots of Egypt, studied Taoism and Buddhism, returned to save the Empire from civil war, and then retired "to learn how to die," come alive in The Glory of the Empire, along with generals, politicians, prophets, scoundrels, and others. D'Ormesson also goes into the daily life of the Empire, its popular customs, and its contribution to the arts and the sciences, which, as he demonstrates, exercised an influence on the world as a whole, from East to West, and whose repercussions are still felt today. But it is all fiction, a thought experiment worthy of Jorge Luis Borges, and in the end The Glory of the Empire emerges as a great shimmering mirage, filling us with wonder even as it makes us wonder at the fugitive nature of power and the meaning of history itself"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Subject: | Byzantine Empire > Fiction. |
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Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at GRPL.
Author Notes
The Glory of the Empire : A Novel, a History
Jean Bruno Wladimir François de Paule Le Fèvre d'Ormesson was born in Paris, France on June 16, 1925. He studied philosophy at the Ãcole Normale Supérieure. In 1950, he joined Unesco (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris as the head of its international council for philosophy and humanistic studies. From 1974 to 1977, he was the publisher of Le Figaro, the conservative French daily newspaper. His first book, L'Amour Est un Plaisir, was published in 1956. He published 40 works of fiction during his lifetime including Goodbye and Thank You and La Gloire de l'Empire, which received the Académie Française Grand Prix award. As a member of the Académie Française, he sponsored the first woman to join its elite numbers. He died from a heart attack on December 5, 2017 at the age of 92. (Bowker Author Biography)
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