Friday, March 25, 2011

Mark Malloch-Brown's 6 favorite novels of empire

Mark Malloch-Brown is a former United Nations deputy secretary-general and a former British Foreign Office minister. His new book is The Unfinished Global Revolution: The Pursuit of a New International Politics.

He named his six favorite novels of empire for The Week magazine.

One title on his list:
I, Claudius by Robert Graves

For my generation, this was first a television dramatization, which drove us to the novel because it seemed to tell, through the prism of the Roman Empire, the story of the rise and fall of our own.
Read about another novel on the list.

I, Claudius also appears on Annabel Lyon's top ten list of books on the ancient world, Lindsey Davis' top ten list of Roman books, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best poisonings in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue