Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Paris, A. Colin, 1960
Description
Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML: With his masterwork Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert blazed new trails in literary realism with a gripping tale of a disenchanted wife entangled in an extramarital affair. After that, Flaubert took a completely different tack and dove into the extensive historical research that would form the basis of the novel Salammbo, an action-packed account of the series of wars that devastated Carthage in the 3rd century BC..
User reviews
LibraryThing member Steven_VI
Salammbô is set in ancient Carthage and talks about a war between mercenaries and the Carthaginean army, led by Hamilcar Barcas.
Flaubert has mixed classical greek elements with modern, realist ideas. The overall theme of the novel is arrogance -- not the god-defying hybris of classical tragedy,
Though the gods seem to get their revenge in the end, it is man who drives the action. It is the greed of the Carthagineans that starts the war, it is the jealousy of the Council of Ancients that doublecrosses Hamilcar every time he is on the verge of winning, it is the pride of Hamilcar's political rival Hannon that leads to gruesome defeats.
Flaubert has interspersed his story with an exotic kind of realism, leading to elaborate descriptions of costumes, ceremonies, military movements, and torturous punishments. Salammbô is a distant relative of The Passion of the Christ in all its gorey historical realism, and perhaps the horrifying descriptions are all too gratuitious. But Salammbô goes deeper than this, it is a biting description of human society as a political structure, showing how party politics will work against the best intents of the state.
Salammbô is an exponent of the french exotism, which took a start with Napoleons Egyptian expeditions and influenced many other artists (Verdi's Aïda is another famous example). Unlike most, however, Flaubert did extensive research for his book, even traveling to Tunisia. Echoes of Homer and Xenophon are scattered throughout his work. It seems to me that the way the novel depicts Carthage as a major character has also inspired Albert Camus when he wrote La Peste, where another African city is closed off from the world while a pseudo-divine punishment chastises the inhabitants.
Flaubert has mixed classical greek elements with modern, realist ideas. The overall theme of the novel is arrogance -- not the god-defying hybris of classical tragedy,
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but the very human form: pride, jealousy, greed. These three human characters are intertwined thoughout the story. The mercenaries seemingly start their war because the Carthagineans don't want to pay them, but it is the slave Spendius who stirs them up, deliberately misleading them in his desire for power. Spendius also steers the mercenary general Mâtho, who is mostly driven by his lusting for Salammbô, into stealing the most sacred object of the Carthagineans: the Zaimph, the veil of the godess Tanith.Though the gods seem to get their revenge in the end, it is man who drives the action. It is the greed of the Carthagineans that starts the war, it is the jealousy of the Council of Ancients that doublecrosses Hamilcar every time he is on the verge of winning, it is the pride of Hamilcar's political rival Hannon that leads to gruesome defeats.
Flaubert has interspersed his story with an exotic kind of realism, leading to elaborate descriptions of costumes, ceremonies, military movements, and torturous punishments. Salammbô is a distant relative of The Passion of the Christ in all its gorey historical realism, and perhaps the horrifying descriptions are all too gratuitious. But Salammbô goes deeper than this, it is a biting description of human society as a political structure, showing how party politics will work against the best intents of the state.
Salammbô is an exponent of the french exotism, which took a start with Napoleons Egyptian expeditions and influenced many other artists (Verdi's Aïda is another famous example). Unlike most, however, Flaubert did extensive research for his book, even traveling to Tunisia. Echoes of Homer and Xenophon are scattered throughout his work. It seems to me that the way the novel depicts Carthage as a major character has also inspired Albert Camus when he wrote La Peste, where another African city is closed off from the world while a pseudo-divine punishment chastises the inhabitants.
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LibraryThing member la2bkk
As an avid ancient history fan, I was very pleasantly surprised to discover this work. Although historical fiction, in general Flaubert did his homework and wrote a fairly accurate account of the little known but brutal Third century BC war between Carthage and its mercenary army.
Flaubert did an
Flaubert did an
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excellent job of describing the exotic Carthaginian rituals, the multitude of peoples that comprised the mercenaries, etc. However, I found his lavishly ornate writing style tiring. Sometimes too much of a good thing really isn't that good after all. Show Less
LibraryThing member antiquary
In honesty, my rating is based on reading the English translation. Extremely vivid historical novel of the "truceless war" between Carthage and the rebel mercenaries.
LibraryThing member markbstephenson
The best historical novel I've read so far.
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
Flaubert goes on a radically different track here - after the astonishing success of Madame Bovary he goes for an Orientalist tragedy on the ruin of Carthage.
As expected, he put an astonishing amount of work into this - he's read his Polybius, and written astonishing (exaggerated?) accounts of the
It's as though Flaubert has constructed an elaborate sand castle which is Carthage and he has taken a special delight in taking off his boots and kicking it down.
It was a good novel, no question. But compared to the rest of Flaubert's genius, 'good' is 'OK'.
As expected, he put an astonishing amount of work into this - he's read his Polybius, and written astonishing (exaggerated?) accounts of the
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Carthaginian religion. Lots of description of destruction and savagery and war. The devourer-god, Moloch. That alone makes it worth a read.It's as though Flaubert has constructed an elaborate sand castle which is Carthage and he has taken a special delight in taking off his boots and kicking it down.
It was a good novel, no question. But compared to the rest of Flaubert's genius, 'good' is 'OK'.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
A bit of a rollicking tale, especially unexpected from Flaubert; it has the feeling of an epic poem, or a medieval romance. That's probably the best way to judge it: not dealing with deep characters (although Spendius is chilling); not interested in a perfectly coherent, driven plot (although
But by far the weirdest thing was that it reminded me of 'Blood Meridian.' I wonder if there's anything to that.
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there's plenty of action); but filled with asides, descriptions and repetitions. But it's also 'realistic', in the sense of packed with detail; this clashes in an interesting way with the characters' speeches to each other, which feel very mannered. I imagine this is much better studied than read breezily like I did. But by far the weirdest thing was that it reminded me of 'Blood Meridian.' I wonder if there's anything to that.
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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
A bloodthirsty Carthaginian epic; reveals history in a way that few writers can manage.
LibraryThing member billt568
Took a few days to process. This book was compelling and the story was one I was only familiar with as a historical sidenote. The violence and the sexual imagery used a lot of similar prose, and I found the sensuality sort of mixed between the two. In the end it was like eating rotten, sweet fruit,
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and certainly not beautiful or enjoyable, albeit unique. I felt at times like I was reading a painting, and kept thinking of Pedro Paramo or Guccione's Caligula (not the pornographic parts) or The General in his Labyrinth in that it was almost feverish and grotesque and stylized in its remembrance. Show Less
LibraryThing member burritapal
Although I admired the work Flaubert put into the book, it was hard to get past all the violence to the animals. The people were killed left and right (life was cheap in those times), it seemed as though they deserved it, often, out of sheer stupidity. But the Mercenaries took their anger out on
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the innocent animals, ie. maiming and killing elephants, lions, burning the trees that the monkeys were in, boiling fish alive. Still, vividly written. Show Less
LibraryThing member john257hopper
I was disappointed by this. Having listened to a 4 part podcast series on the first Punic War, which contained a number of dramatic readings from this book, I expected to find it more gripping. But now I have given up on it around a third of the way through. While Flaubert clearly researched the
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historical background very assiduously from Roman historian Polybius's work, the narrative reads like what we would now call an info dump, as though he was so determined to show off his research that he barely remembered to tell an actual story. I found it an uninteresting drag so cut my losses after chapter 5 of 15. Show Less
Subjects
Original language
French
Original publication date
1862