The Confessions of Young Nero

Best-selling historical novelist George moves from British kings and queens (Elizabeth I; The Autobiography of Henry VIII) to ancient Rome in this fictionalized biography of one of its most notorious emperors. Adopted by the emperor Claudius and related to Marc Antony, Augustus, and Caligula, Nero was crowned emperor at the age of 16. Nero is remembered, most infamously, for the excesses and ruthlessness of his reign. In her novel, George details a more balanced view of his life: a love of music and poetry, romantic attachments, grief over the loss of a child, and his sense of duty. However, drama still rules in the ancient world. The psychological warfare of elite Roman families, constant political scheming, and assassination plots move the story line rapidly forward from the first chapter in which Caligula attempts to drown young Nero to the final one in which Nero and his beloved second wife watch Rome burn. Highly acclaimed for the detail and personality she gives to epic subjects, George's heavily researched novel flows dynamically among multiple points of view.