Alexander the Great (Pitt Paperback; 94)

Rating:
Summary: Thorough but liveless account of the live of Alexander II.
Review: J. R. Hamilton's book is a thorough account of the life of Alexander the Great. Starting with his youth in Macedonia he discusses all the major points of interest in Alexander life, such as the Callisthenes affair, the murder of Kleitos and Parmenion and so forth. Hamilton does not try to paint a coherent picture of Alexander, but tries to find the "truth" by assessing the validity of various sources. The advantage of this method, i.e. not squeezing historical facts into a pre-fabricated picture of Alexander is however one of the literary weaknesses of the book; it lacks a drive, an overall assessment of Alexander.

Rating:
Summary: Basic facts on Alexander
Review: This effort by J.R. Hamilton was decent, but I felt it was lacking in detail; in fact, excluding the maps, chronology, etc., the narrative is only about 150 pages. For a figure of Alexander's stature, that's just not enough.

I can also say that Hamilton wrote this book for those already somewhat familiar with Alexander and his contemporaries. I knew of his parents, Philip and Olympias, but many other names, like Hephaestion, Callisthenes and Cleitus (to name a few) were new to me. And unfortunately, Hamilton sometimes mentions them quite briefly, as if assuming the reader already knows who these people were, and the state of their relations with Alexander. Other times, he refers to important events as if the reader knows the story; I often did not, as this was the first book about Alexander I have read. Again, this made for some difficult reading until I got an understanding of the main people and events of Alexander's life.

Still, the book does appear to cover all of the important milestones and events, albeit sometimes briefly (for example, only one paragraph is devoted to the story of the Gordian Knot). But Hamilton does a good job of discussing some of the more controversial deeds of Alexander, like the burning of Persepolis and the murder of Cleitus. And he also provides the opinions of many other historians, both ancient and modern, helping the reader to decide for himself about Alexander's acts.

Overall, this was a fine work by Hamilton. However, if you are new to Alexander, I would suggest another book first, perhaps Arrian's Anabasis of Alexander. Once you have a general understanding of who Alexander was, this book will help you to gain an even deeper insight.

Three stars.