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  • Augustus by John Williams book cover
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Augustus

by John Williams

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A Roman life told through letters

$17.07 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    1973 National Book Award winner

    Winner of the 1973 National Book Award

AlbakiReads Editorial

A Roman life told through letters

Set in classical Rome, John Williams’s historical novel explores the life of Augustus, founder of the Roman Empire. Its epistolary form makes the telling itself part of the book’s subject: the story is assembled through letters rather than presented as a conventional continuous narrative. The source describes this as a new form for Williams, who had previously written novels set in the American West and on a university campus. Here, the focus shifts to an individual life entwined with the formation of an empire.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in historical fiction set in classical Rome.
  • Readers curious about epistolary novels and stories told through letters.
  • Readers seeking fiction centered on the life of Augustus and the founding of the Roman Empire.

Themes

Augustus and Roman historyThe founding of an empireEpistolary storytelling

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

WINNER OF THE 1973 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
By the Author of Stoner

In Augustus, his third great novel, John Williams took on an entirely new challenge, a historical narrative set in classical Rome, exploring the life of the founder of the Roman Empire. To tell the story, Williams turned to the epistolary novel, a genre that was new to him, transforming and transcending it just as he did the western in Butcher's Crossing and the campus novel in Stoner. Augustus is the final triumph of a writer who has come to be recognized around the world as an American master.
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