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Julian

A Novel

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Julian

By: Gore Vidal
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner, George Newbern, David de Vries, Jeff Cummings
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About this listen

The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels.

Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Roman Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshipping the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with Christianity that provoked his murder at the age of thirty-two, only four years into his brilliantly humane and compassionate reign. A marvelously imaginative and insightful novel of classical antiquity, Julian captures the religious and political ferment of a desperate age and restores with blazing wit and vigor the legacy of an impassioned ruler.

©1962, 1964 copyright renewed 1990, 1992 by Gore Vidal. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Political Ancient History War Ancient Greece
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A classic from 1964: great reading, great voices, very interesting novel. Every day an hour of pure memorable enjoyment.

Marvelous

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A master novelist retelling the impossibly ironic tale of Julian the Apostate. This is an absorbing fictional history , told to us as from the intimate correspondence of three key witnesses to one of the greatest moments in the history of civilisation,. This is the last gasp of paganism as it is swallowed by the encroaching dark age in which christianity took hold. It is brought to vivid reality through the written interpretations of these epoch shifting moments by the three most eloquent players on this grand stage.

Moving and thought provoking in so many subtle and satisfying ways and particularly if you know anything
of the time of Julian, into the convulsing death throws of the late Western Roman Empire, the prose is hugely satisfying.

The narration is also flawless to my ear, with the three narrators all having their own highly believable characters. It is told so well as to be gently immersive, no less than the content deserves.

It is indeed a true classic and is possibly even better as an audiobook than an actual book...

profound and authentic fictional history

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One of the best historical novels I’ve even written. Multiple actors narrating the different characters’ parts give it a cinematic feel.

But the actor that read Julian’s part really couldn’t say Ctesiphon (at best it sounded something like Cetestiphon).

Great book, good narration

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The book is probably better in its written format, but I enjoyed quite a bit the audio as well. :)

Just good enough to keep you listening

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Gore Vidal’s Julian is quite simply a knockout. It twas a slow start for me but I persisted. It isn’t just a historical novel; it’s a total masterclass in the genre that makes everything else on the shelf look a bit thin and diluted. Vidal doesn't just "research" the fourth century—he inhabits it, bringing the Roman world back to life with a wit so sharp it’s almost lethal.
What makes it so brilliant is the voice. Julian feels startlingly real—vain, philosophical, brilliant, stubborn, and profoundly human. The way Vidal weaves the Emperor's own "memoirs" with the grumpy, cynical commentary of his old teachers or closest councilors is a stroke of pure genius. It’s funny, it’s tragic, and the prose is just effortless.
If you’re looking for the absolute gold standard of historical fiction ever written, this is it. It’s a massive, sweeping achievement that manages to feel as intimate as a whisper. Truly, they don’t make them like this anymore.

Absolutely remarkable

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