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Bryher
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Coin of Carthage Paperback – January 1, 1965

by Winifred Bryher (Author)
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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"Brilliantly evoking the world of the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War through her description of the lives of two Greek traders, Bryher creates a common man's view of the greatest struggle in which ancient Rome engaged."
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  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harcourt
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1965
  5. ISBN-10
    0156184079
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0156184076
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harcourt; New edition (January 1, 1965)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0156184079
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0156184076
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

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Bryher

Bryher

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Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

shelley schenk
5.0 out of 5 stars What a novel!
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2021
Verified Purchase
What a well written book by an author who didn’t get enough attention considering she was in Paris with Hemingway and Stein. This novel transports you to Rome during the Punic Wars. This seller delivered a clean book, on time.
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Ben Kane
4.0 out of 5 stars A curate's egg of a novel
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2013
It's books such as this that make me wish that Amazon had a slightly more refined review system. Simply, this book doesn't rate 4 star for me, but neither does it merit 3, or 3.5. So maybe it's a 3.75 - or not quite.

At first glance, what's not to love? This is a short tale (250 pp.) of two Greek traders, Zonas and Dasius, at the time of the Second Punic War. It's beautifully written - Bryher had a really deft turn of phrase, etching vivid scenes with the minimum of words. Her prose is concise and for the most part, extremely engaging. You'll find few examples of the adverbs ('angrily, 'fiercely' etc.) that litter my novels and those of others. It doesn't suffer from 'info dumps', so we gradually learn little details about Hannibal, about Rome, about the campaign up and down Italy, and how the tide turned against Carthage.

But - and it's a big but - the novel suffers from two things that I really didn't like. One perhaps I should ignore, because it was clearly the way Bryher wrote. I thought that it was a modern habit to use commas where it's better to use semi colons or full stops, but this book proved me wrong. Bryher's sentences go on and on, interspersed with so many commas, that one, forgets what the meaning, is. Was. Or something.

I can set that aside, however, because the tales of the two men are good ones. What bugged me the most was the fact that the novel didn't seem to have a purpose. It meandered all over the place, often leaving us not knowing what was happening to another character for long periods (I do that, but not for as long as in this book). In fact, it wasn't clear that it was about two characters for quite some time. By the end of the book, I was wondering what had been Bryher's purpose in writing it? If it is to prove that life is transient, and can be capricious, cruel and random, and is quite likely, ultimately pointless, she did her job. I can take that in a film, strangely, but I don't like it in a book.

Nonetheless, I recommend this novel to those of you with an interest in the time. It's worth a read.

Ben Kane, author of the Spartacus novels.
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Top reviews from other countries

glenys hesketh
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2017
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