Items related to The emperor's babe: A novel
Synopsis
Funny, funky, seductive and lyrical, Bernardine Evaristo's novel in verse is a triumph of imaginative writing. Londinium, 211AD. A city of slum tenements and sumptuous villas. A city where the currency is often sex, where children go to work aged five, and marriage is a career move. The striking Zuleika, feisty daughter of Sudanese immigrants, child-bride of an ageing Roman businessman, bored with villa life, bored with sex, bored with her ever-absent husband, meets the Emperor Septimus Severus and her life changes forever.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Bernardine Evaristo's debut novel, LARA, was published to wide critical acclaim, and won the Emma Best Book Award in 1999 (won by Zadie Smith in 2000). She is a former Poet in Residence at the Museum of London, and her work has been widely anthologized. She won a prestigious Arts Council Writers Award in 2000.
From Publishers Weekly
Employing the same narrative verse style that served her so well in her debut, Lara, British writer Evaristo travels back in time to tell the story of Zuleika, a libidinous but frustrated Sudanese woman who comes of age in a Roman-conquered London in A.D. 211. Spotted at the age of 11 by rich Roman senator Lucius Aurelius Felix, "a man thrice my age and thrice my girth," she lands in the lap of luxury when a wedding quickly takes place. But Felix's lack of libido soon turns the marriage into a prison, and when he begins to travel, jazzy teenager Zuleika hits the social scene in the urban maze that is Londinium and receives some flattering attention from a visiting Roman emperor, Septimus Severus. The two begin a brief but torrid affair until Evaristo wraps up her thin plot by sending Severus off to war as Felix returns to find that the entire community knows about the affair. Plot problems aside, most of this is an excuse for Evaristo to stretch her poetic muscles as she creates a beautiful, passionate African-cum-Roman woman as seen through the imagination of a highly liberated and sexual 21st-century poet. Despite the occasional burst of purple verse, she succeeds admirably in bringing a difficult and treacherous conceit to fruition, liberally indulging in irreverent asides, vivid vernacular speech and clever puns. The generally high quality of the poetry overshadows the failure of the book to develop into a genuine, full-fledged novel. This is a vividly imagined albeit distinctly modern look at a woman's role in Roman times by a talented writer with a fertile mind and a playful spirit.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherHamish Hamilton
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 0241141141
- ISBN 13 9780241141144
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages250
- Rating
Other Popular Editions of the Same Title
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
The Emperor's Babe: A Novel
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR001462622
Quantity: 4 available
Stock Image
The Emperor's Babe: A Novel
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Fair. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration. Seller Inventory # GOR006424344
Quantity: 1 available
Seller Image
The Emperor's Babe
Published by
Hamish Hamilton Ltd, London, 2001
ISBN 10: 0241141141
ISBN 13: 9780241141144
Used
Original Wraps
First Edition
Seller: Raymond Tait, Beccles, SUFFO, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Original Wraps. Condition: Poor. Tazzyman, David (illustrator). 1st Edition. Paperback Original. Ex-library copy with a half inch circular patch of surface damage at the bottom of the spine where a label has been removed. The spine is also a little faded with one heavy reading crease. Reading creasing down the left side of the front cover which also has a half inch crease to the bottom corner. Light surface creasing to the rear cover with a little fading to the right side next to the spine. Browning to the edges of the pages. Two 'Withdrawn' stamps to the title page and the preceding page has been removed. Small patch of label residue to the inside of the front cover. 'Essex County Library' stamp to the copyright page. Large patch of surface tearing to the inside of the rear cover - probably due to a label being removed? Small hole in the final page. The pages are a little browned but otherwise clean and unmarked. Cover illustration by David Tazzyman. First printing. Seller Inventory # 016477
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
The emperor's babe: A novel
Seller: 369 Bookstore _[~ 369 Pyramid Inc ~]_, Dover, DE, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Softcover. Condition: Good. Bernardine Evaristo?s tale of forbidden love in bustling third-century London is an intoxicating cocktail of poetry, history, and fiction. Feisty, precocious Zuleika, daughter of Sudanese immigrants-made-good and restless teenage bride of a rich Roman businessman, craves passion and excitement. When she begins an affair with the emperor, Septimius Severus, she knows her life will never be the same. Streetwise, seductive, and lyrical, with a lively, affecting heroine, The Emperor?s Babe is a strikingly imaginative historical novel-in-verse. Seller Inventory # AMPLE0241141141
Quantity: 1 available
Seller Image
The Emperor's Babe - SIGNED
Published by
Hamish Hamilton, 2001
ISBN 10: 0241141141
ISBN 13: 9780241141144
Used
Soft cover
First Edition
Signed
Seller: Mungobooks, Poole, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 1st edition, 1st printing paperback original, no hardback issued by publisher. SIGNED dedication dated in 2001 by author on front endpaper, with no other inscriptions. Book in VG condition, reading creases to spine . Not a book club edition, ex library or a remainder. I am happy to supply scans. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # ABE-1586262068148
Quantity: 1 available