Alexander the Fabulous

[mel]

I was introduced to Alexander through the television show Smallville (sad what our country's youth have fallen to, no?), and I was given a book about him for my birthday. The book is entitled 'Alexander the Fabulous', and is as can be imagined dedicated entirely to his great love Hepheastion. The book is incredibly amusing and certainly bases itself in truth, but it is not much in the way of a biography. (Bucephalus is given as "Latin for Frankencock") I wonder if anyone else has read it? I enjoyed it, but it didn't teach me much about Alexander.

[rollrite]

well, hopefully you will read "mary renault" this is the person that got me started. the persian boy is one of my favorites, but the nature of alexander is meaty stuff, at least for me. i'm not author or college grad but i love myself some alexander. happy reading

[stathis]

You wrote:''his great love Hephaestion''

From this i can assume that this book concentrates in the hypothetical love affair between Alexander and Hephaestion,among other things.Correct me if i am wrong. However this is not the most appropriate book to begin learning about Alexander. Before you get into the sources,i would suggest that you read: "The virtues of War" by Steven Pressfield.It is an excellent nouvelle about Alexander.
And if you like this book also read "Gates of fire" again by Pressfield.It is not about Alexander,it is about the Spartans and Thermopylae but it is a "must read" book by everyone,an amazing nouvelle. Then you can start reading some of the sources too, like Arrian's books about Alexander and Ploutarhos books(parallel lives Alexander the Great-Julious Ceasar"

[marcus]

Well, Stathis, each to his own.I would say that "Virtues of War" is definitely *not* a book to read as an introduction to Alexander - which isn't to say that I didn't quite enjoy it, just that it isn't (in my opinion) a good starting point. In fact, from the brief look I had of the "Fabulous" book in the shop, "Virtues" is no better as a starting point than the other.I thought "Fabulous" looked quite fun. I would say that it's OK as a starting point, so long as the reader doesn't think that it portrays the truth - the quicker one graduates to reading Arrian, Curtius, and then some good modern scholars, the better.If someone doesn't want to delve into the most scholarly works, then there's an excellent short introduction by Richard Stoneman, and another (of about the same length - 120-odd pages) by Nigel Cawthorne. Well worth reading.ATBMarcus