Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating city: A mediocre book
Review: This book is an attempt by Theodore Vrettos to describe one of the most fascinating cities of the western world, however, he spends too much time on other subjects. He talks about the birth of Alexandria in the Part I, which explains the basis of how the city is laid out and why it was constructed. In Part II Vrettos starts to tackle the subject of Alexandria's great minds. This part was pretty good, and after describing the more technical, astronomical minds, he starts Part III. This is where pages 77 to 160 are taken up, nearly half of a 220 page page book. Unfortunetely, this is just a drawn-out description of Cleopatra's life, which although it does relate to the city, is only a small, miniscule part of Alexandria's great essence. After Part III, he goes back to talking about the minds of the city, but this time talks about the philosophical and religious minds, this part is also relatively good. Finally, he devotes the last few pages of the book to The Death of Alexandria, however, he focuses far to much attention on the Arab invaders than the earlier destruction and book burnings done by other groups. Overall, the author tries to give a summary of the city, but rather than giving a well-balanced view, too much time is spent on Cleopatra, and not enough time is spent on all the intellectual people in the city. Don't be deterred from reading about Alexandria, it is a fascinating city, but I am sure that there are other, more focused books than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Lovely Book
Review: This book provoked my western imagination. It's a lovely and loving look at the city of Alexandria, and explores both its thinkers, its history and its layout. I'm lead to believe it isn't the most reliable account for scholars, but for the average lay person, it's so lovely that after reading it in the library, I had to own it.
|
