'Read THE WALLED ORCHARD so you can tell your descendants, 'I was there when the historical novel started holding its head up with the rest of literature''. - WASHINGTON POST
'This book is a hilarious yet well-researached historical novel.' - HISTORICAL NOVEL REVIEW
The hero is Eupolis, weary, cynical and believing only in comedy. The heroine is Athens, at the height of her schizophrenic glory. A startling mixture of comedy and tragedy, THE WALLED ORCHARD is the poignant, charming story of their turbulent relationship.
With unforgettable characters and a powerful and moving story, THE WALLED ORCHARD is a wonderful evocation of life in Ancient Greece in the fifth century BC.
Books by Tom Holt:
Walled Orchard Series Goatsong The Walled Orchard
J.W. Wells & Co. Series The Portable Door In Your Dreams Earth, Air, Fire and Custard You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps The Better Mousetrap May Contain Traces of Magic Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages
YouSpace Series Doughnut When It's A Jar The Outsorcerer's Apprentice The Good, the Bad and the Smug
Novels Expecting Someone Taller Who's Afraid of Beowulf Flying Dutch Ye Gods! Overtime Here Comes the Sun Grailblazers Faust Among Equals Odds and Gods Djinn Rummy My Hero Paint your Dragon Open Sesame Wish you Were Here Alexander at World's End Only Human Snow White and the Seven Samurai Olympiad Valhalla Nothing But Blue Skies Falling Sideways Little People Song for Nero Meadowland Barking Blonde Bombshell The Management Style of the Supreme Beings An Orc on the Wild Side
From Publishers Weekly
Poor comic dramatist Eupolis has promised the god Dionysus that he'll look after his arch-rival and fellow soldier, the playwright Aristophanes. As they embark on the invasion of Sicily, the Peloponnesian War turns into a "fever-stricken slaughterhouse"; upon returning to his native Athens, Eupolis is falsely accused of treason and blasphemy. The Fates are perverse and the gods reckless in this wonderfully down-to-earth re-creation of Greece in the fifth century B.C., a sequel to Goatsong. With irreverent wit and hindsight, Holt takes the classical world off its pedestal, revealing the Greek psyche to be an amalgam of logic and irrationality, passion and superstition, and fear. Eupolis, sane and cynical, consults with Socrates; bickers with his wife, Phaedra; and plans his own legal defense while a vulnerable, corrupt democracy ineluctably slides toward oligarchy. In this dark "autobiography," readers are reminded that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In this second volume of the "Walled Orchard" series, Eupolis, Athenian comic playwright and rival of Aristophanes, continues relating the story he began in Goatsong ( LJ 2/1/90). Joining the ill-fated expedition to Sicily, Eupolis is one of the few combatants to escape from the walled orchard where the troops have taken refuge. Once back in Athens, he is accused of toppling statues of Hermes before the army sailed and is tried for treason. After his acquittal, he writes his final play, The Demes , a satirical look at Athens and its problems. As in Goatsong , the narrator's tone is conversational, with self-deprecating humor. His description conveys impressions of fighting and flight in Sicily and of being on trial in 5th century Athens. Readers interested in historical fiction as related by a minor Athenian poet will find this version amusing and interesting as well as thought-provoking. Recommended. - Ellen Kaye Stoppel, Drake Univ. Law Lib., Des Moines
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Tom Holt is the acclaimed author of a bestselling series of comic fantasy and historical novels. He lives in Chard, Somerset. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
This book is a hilarious yet well-researached historical novel.―HISTORICAL NOVEL REVIEW **
Witty, ironic... and achieved a deeply felt authenticity.―** THE NEW YORK TIMES **
** 'Out of his own playful erudition, Tom Holt creates an unforgettable narrator, a wise and caustic commentator on the golden age of Athens―** WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Description:
'Read THE WALLED ORCHARD so you can tell your descendants, 'I was there when the historical novel started holding its head up with the rest of literature''. - WASHINGTON POST
'This book is a hilarious yet well-researached historical novel.' - HISTORICAL NOVEL REVIEW
The hero is Eupolis, weary, cynical and believing only in comedy. The heroine is Athens, at the height of her schizophrenic glory. A startling mixture of comedy and tragedy, THE WALLED ORCHARD is the poignant, charming story of their turbulent relationship.
With unforgettable characters and a powerful and moving story, THE WALLED ORCHARD is a wonderful evocation of life in Ancient Greece in the fifth century BC.
Books by Tom Holt:
Walled Orchard Series
Goatsong
The Walled Orchard
J.W. Wells & Co. Series
The Portable Door
In Your Dreams
Earth, Air, Fire and Custard
You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps
The Better Mousetrap
May Contain Traces of Magic
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages
YouSpace Series
Doughnut
When It's A Jar
The Outsorcerer's Apprentice
The Good, the Bad and the Smug
Novels
Expecting Someone Taller
Who's Afraid of Beowulf
Flying Dutch
Ye Gods!
Overtime
Here Comes the Sun
Grailblazers
Faust Among Equals
Odds and Gods
Djinn Rummy
My Hero
Paint your Dragon
Open Sesame
Wish you Were Here
Alexander at World's End
Only Human
Snow White and the Seven Samurai
Olympiad
Valhalla
Nothing But Blue Skies
Falling Sideways
Little People
Song for Nero
Meadowland
Barking
Blonde Bombshell
The Management Style of the Supreme Beings
An Orc on the Wild Side
From Publishers Weekly
Poor comic dramatist Eupolis has promised the god Dionysus that he'll look after his arch-rival and fellow soldier, the playwright Aristophanes. As they embark on the invasion of Sicily, the Peloponnesian War turns into a "fever-stricken slaughterhouse"; upon returning to his native Athens, Eupolis is falsely accused of treason and blasphemy. The Fates are perverse and the gods reckless in this wonderfully down-to-earth re-creation of Greece in the fifth century B.C., a sequel to Goatsong. With irreverent wit and hindsight, Holt takes the classical world off its pedestal, revealing the Greek psyche to be an amalgam of logic and irrationality, passion and superstition, and fear. Eupolis, sane and cynical, consults with Socrates; bickers with his wife, Phaedra; and plans his own legal defense while a vulnerable, corrupt democracy ineluctably slides toward oligarchy. In this dark "autobiography," readers are reminded that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In this second volume of the "Walled Orchard" series, Eupolis, Athenian comic playwright and rival of Aristophanes, continues relating the story he began in Goatsong ( LJ 2/1/90). Joining the ill-fated expedition to Sicily, Eupolis is one of the few combatants to escape from the walled orchard where the troops have taken refuge. Once back in Athens, he is accused of toppling statues of Hermes before the army sailed and is tried for treason. After his acquittal, he writes his final play, The Demes , a satirical look at Athens and its problems. As in Goatsong , the narrator's tone is conversational, with self-deprecating humor. His description conveys impressions of fighting and flight in Sicily and of being on trial in 5th century Athens. Readers interested in historical fiction as related by a minor Athenian poet will find this version amusing and interesting as well as thought-provoking. Recommended.
- Ellen Kaye Stoppel, Drake Univ. Law Lib., Des Moines
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
In a sequel to Goatsong, the continuing history of Golden Age Athens from the point of view of a comic playwright who survives the Great Peloponnesian War--a free-floating romp that makes a hash out of classical Greece. Holt, who's made a career with this sort of thing (Expecting Someone Taller is a comic variation on Wagner's Ring Cycle; Who's Afraid of Beowulf? deals with Norse sagas) scores again. Eupolis, in his early 20s, is married to Phaedra, beautiful and faithless, and is in rivalry (for his woman as well as for the comic crown) with Aristophanes. Here, Athens is about to go to war with Sicily, but the preparations for the voyage are ominous--among other things, vandals destroy street statues--and the campaign is a comedy of errors. The Athenians are slaughtered, but Eupolis muddles through. Along the way, he converses with ghosts and also with the god Dionysus, who tells him to protect Aristophanes. Eupolis and Aristophanes then stumble through enemy territory in a slapstick variation of a Laurel and Hardy routine--reciting fabricated Euripides and doing stand-up comedy. When they finally hitch a ride home on a cargo ship, Eupolis is tried for treason- -accused of having had a hand in the prewar vandalism. Under sentence of death, he defends himself eloquently after a talk with Socrates, among others. His acid speech in his own defense attacks the fickle masses and the new oligarchy, and he's found guilty by one vote. He proceeds to write a play that wins the Festival and makes him a hero, though Phaedra, with whom he's had an armed truce, takes sick and dies. The prose is sprightly, the satire loose-jointed and entertaining (but at times also pointed), and the history skewed enough to give the whole thing a juicy, authentic feel. Holt has obviously found his niche. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Tom Holt is the acclaimed author of a bestselling series of comic fantasy and historical novels. He lives in Chard, Somerset. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
This book is a hilarious yet well-researached historical novel.―HISTORICAL NOVEL REVIEW **
Witty, ironic... and achieved a deeply felt authenticity.―** THE NEW YORK TIMES **
** 'Out of his own playful erudition, Tom Holt creates an unforgettable narrator, a wise and caustic commentator on the golden age of Athens―** WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.