the_lady_lily | Bibliography

Clio's Cosmetics - T. P. Wiseman

This is one of those books, in the sense that it's one of those books of classics that has had a fairly wide-reaching influence on scholarship in the field of classical history and has provided either a starting point or a punching bag for a lot of the work done on stuff that I'm interested in, particularly exempla (how fictional stories become accepted as 'historical', that sort of thing). It's an interesting juxtaposition - if we are saying that X clearly invented this anecdote and Y fifty years later is citing is as What Actually Happened In The Past, what does that mean for our teaching of ancient history in the classroom? (Judiciously ignoring it, as far as I can tell, but I'm going to let that pass.)

I haven't read enough of people arguing against Wiseman on this point to know the counterarguments, although I'm sure there are people who must do. As I say, my main interest in his work is the base he lays for studies of moral exempla, morally improving stories which in the main come from the mytho-historic period of Rome's history. I start having issues when he starts talking about people in the late Republic making up traditions about people in the mid Republic and having them absorbed into the historical narrative within the lifetime of the author who invented them in the first place (Cicero in this instance), but I digress.

Anyway, it's very clear why this book has managed to have the influence it has in terms of upending our way of thinking about Roman historiography and giving it a good shake, so I'm glad to have spent the time reading it. Plus Wiseman writes well, which is always a plus in an academic.

Galahad at Blandings - P. G. Wodehouse

The next in the Blandings saga, not quite as compelling as the previous one despite the centrality of Galahad. Again, part of the Wodehouse 'up and down and up again' rhythm. You get the usual complement of young women trying to marry young men and vice versa, although on this occasion most of the impediments are put in the way by the young people themselves rather than their esteemed elders trying to prevent the match.

Oh, and the Empress, prize pig of Blandings, doesn't get stolen on this occasion. She is just nearly let out of her sty by an irritating small boy. And gets tipsy on the contents of a hip flask dropped into her swill.

I don't quite know why I am feeling a bit underwhelmed by this one; jaunty as Galahad may be, and clever as some of his witty remarks are, I feel that Wodehouse set a very speedy pace at the beginning of the book (starting with a couple of young men in a New York jail for being drunk and disorderly and, at the moment we meet them, hungover), but then sort of fell over a bit near the end. Which is a shame, because good plot ended by sloppy, lazy resolutions leave you feeling a bit cheated by the good stuff you enjoyed before. But never mind - again, Wodehouse is definitely a brain-candy book, and I enjoyed this as such.