And those teenage hangups are hard to beat

[sovay]

I had forgotten the thread in Katherine Kincaid's Beloved Bondage (1993) that now reads like Christian inspirational romance, but then again that is an occupational hazard of narratives set in early imperial Rome. I've seen Ben-Hur (1959), and Quo Vadis (1951), and keep having to double-check about The Robe (1953). Now I want to re-read I, Claudius (1934), which thanks to the exigencies of my current life is in storage when it used to be one of the books I always unpacked first. In tenth grade, the majority of my friend group was reading Mercedes Lackey and I was reading Robert Graves. To each their id.

Comments

[selkie]

*shivers* Christian inspirational romance?

Edit because I hit something when the landscapers scared me: do you want the loan of mine? Mine are unpacked, and I won't even make you come down and get them. I'll pop them in the mail. (Apparently, a new-from-1961 edition of the very ones I have rattled around with for decades is worth something; these are not, but nor are they mildewed or anything.)

[sovay]

Christian inspirational romance?

You know, the standard early Christians in Rome: "She wished she could belive in a gentle, kind, compassionate god, instead of the cruel, capricious deities who were so difficult to please or understand . . . He could believe anything in her arms—even the lovely fable of eternity and the story of a Jewish carpenter's son-turned-king who promised happiness and a glorious future in another world. Would it not be wonderful if it were really true?" I really had forgotten about it, but I have more of an allergy these days. This is a romance novel whose hero turns out to be Caratacus in the last few pages. It leaves no stop unpulled.

(I appreciate the offer. I may just see if I can get mine out of storage. They are the red-covered Modern Library editions and I've nver read any other.)

[selkie]

You know this, but if the gods at hand had had no kindly faces, no one would have worshiped them, and everyone would be bumbling around the upper world instead of having a nice sea crossing. (Wait, did the Romans have the Sea? I will google. EITHER WAY, THOUGH.)

*googles book*

HOLY PANTS, PLEASE TELL ME THERE'S A JUDAH BEN HUR CAMEO

[sovay]

Wait, did the Romans have the Sea?

They had a lot of chthonic. You'd recognize it. There are even significant trees.

HOLY PANTS, PLEASE TELL ME THERE'S A JUDAH BEN HUR CAMEO

There is tragically not, but there is an important chariot race. The lead horse of the hero's team is Incitatus.