quick yet comprehensive overview of Boudicea as a muchmythologised figure throughout history, in various interpretations both ancient and modern.
This book is one of the to give a comprehensive look at Boudica, It is very well written and was a quick read for me, It does take some familiarity with the time period to understand all of the references, but the author does an excellent job of putting pieces together and analyzing all the evidence.
For readers interested in the relationship between history and literature, this is a fascinating and enjoyable book.
Its central figure, the woman who defied Rome in firstcentury Britannia, is a perfect case study: only one written source, in Latin, has any claim to direct knowledge of the events, leaving wide gaps that historians and writers of fiction have eagerly filled in ever since.
Williams looks carefully at the ancient courses as well as tracing many transformations of Boudica including her name through succeeding eras and a variety of genres.
Her thematic organization keeps the focus on Boudica rather than on extended discussions of particular treatments, so that the brief comments and quoted examples leave the impression that most novels, poems, plays, and films about her are equally badsentimental, sensational, or both.
All the examples show that writers emphasize characteristics that reinforce their own ideas, and the ideas of their audience, about women and gender roles.
As Williams points out, we cant go back and remake history, but were always rewriting it.
This book begins with a study of the
few ancient texts which provide the source material for all subsequent accounts of the seventhcentury British queen Boudica and her ferocious yet ultimately unsuccessful rebellion against the Romans.
It shows how their information was assembled over centuries to create the entity we know as Boudica today.
It then examines writers' attempts to portray Boudica as an individual, including her appearance, personal ties and home life.
It follows by discussing their opinions on the atrocities she suffered and committed their assessment of her fitness for command and chances of victory, and the spiritual, political, and national implications of her rebellion, concluding with a brief examination of ways in which writers have invited others to share her story.
Are her metamorphoses without limits, governed solely by the requirements of individual authors, or variations on a distinctive theme, generated by a flexible yet enduring narrative pattern Carolyn D.
Williams is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and American Literature, .