Recommendations
Books Like Augustus
If you liked Williams's National Book Award historical novel, these books share its epistolary precision and meditation on power and the human condition
Augustus (1972) by John Williams is his National Book Award-winning last novel — an epistolary historical novel about Caesar Augustus told entirely through letters, diaries, and documents from Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Julia, and Livia. Williams's most formally ambitious work and a perfect final statement.
- 1
Buy on AmazonStoner
by John Williams
Williams's companion mature masterwork immediately preceding — showing Williams's spare precision in its most celebrated intimate form before Augustus applies it to Roman history.
- 2
Buy on AmazonButcher's Crossing
by John Williams
Williams's companion second novel — showing the anti-romantic vision at work in the American landscape before it turned to Rome.
- 3
Buy on AmazonNothing But the Night
by John Williams
Williams's companion debut — the starting point of a four-novel artistic development that Augustus completes.
- 4
Buy on AmazonI Claudius
by Robert Graves
Graves's companion great historical novel narrated by the Emperor Claudius — the companion in the tradition of the literary novel about Rome as meditation on power and human nature.
- 5
Buy on AmazonThe Last of the Wine
by Mary Renault
Renault's companion great historical novel about Athens during the Peloponnesian War — the companion in the tradition of the great literary historical novel about the ancient world.
- 6
Buy on AmazonMemoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar
Yourcenar's companion great novel in the form of Hadrian's meditations — the companion in the tradition of the literary historical novel about the ancient world as meditation on the human condition.
- 7
Buy on AmazonThe Testament of Mary
by Colm Toibin
Tóibín's companion short spare novel reimagining a historical figure's perspective — the companion in the tradition of the literary historical novel that gives fresh voice to a familiar figure.
- 8
Buy on AmazonSPQR
by Mary Beard
Beard's companion great history of Rome — the essential non-fiction companion to understanding the world that Augustus inhabits and transforms.
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