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Archive for the ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’ Category

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth | A source of ‘enjoyment and provocation’

Posted in Readers, The Eagle of the Ninth Book on 12/04/2012 | 4 Comments »

I am not persuaded that this commentator correctly characterises Esca’s relationship with Marcus in Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth. Rosemary’s view of the slave-master relationship is not a ‘romantic’ one. Nor did the film The Eagle ‘fail’, although it was not as successful in the eyes of all the critics and with audiences as was intended by the makers! But there is ‘a lot of … provocation’ to be gained from the comments as well as the book!

I love ancient Roman history but Sutcliff writes so clearly and articulately that I don’t think a young reader, without knowledge of this period, is at a real disadvantage, except maybe in terms of their interest. Americans are predominantly interested in American history, of course, and there is a long and very rich tradition of children’s American historical fiction. A lot of it focuses on the slave experience, but Eagle takes the opposite view. Here, perhaps, is where the book might run into trouble with a non-British readership: Esca, Marcus’ slave, is written quite romantically, as a devoted indentured servant who would follow his owner to the ends of the earth. This is very out of sync with most modern literature (for obvious reasons) and really dates the book. It is a unique challenge for young readers to imagine this story from Esca’s perspective, and I think a really valuable exercise. The somewhat-recent film version starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell is decidedly not child-friendly but at the same time works to rectify these elements.

I truly believe that this element of the book should not stop modern readers from enjoying this text. Maybe it’s a bit optimistic of me, but I really do think that there’s a lot of enjoyment and provocation to be gained from this book and I hope that the failure of the film (well… I liked it… no one else did) doesn’t dissuade you from enjoying it. ★ ★ ★ ★ /5

Source: presenting… books!

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Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novel for children The Lantern Bearers won The Carnegie Medal in 1959

Posted in Awards, Song for a Dark Queen, The Eagle of the Ninth Book, The Mark of the Horse Lord, The Shining Company, Tristan and Iseult, tagged on 10/04/2012 | Leave a Comment »

Cover of Japanese Edition of The Lantern Bearers

Rosemary Sutcliff won the Library Association Carnegie Medal in 1959 for her historical novel for children (“aged 8 to 88″ in her view) The Lantern Bearers. The Medal is awarded every year in the UK to the writer of an outstanding book for children. First awarded to Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post, the medal is now awarded by CILIP: The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Both the Carnegie Medal and its sister award, the Kate Greenaway Medal are awarded annually. The 2012 shortlist was recently announced, and the winners will be named on Thursday 14th June.

The Library Association started the prize in 1936, in memory of the Scottish-born philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), a self-made industrialist who made his fortune in steel in the USA. The winner now receives a golden medal and some £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice. Rosemary Sutcliff also won or was nominated for many other awards in the UK and USA. (She won other awards in translation). She

Full list of Carnegie Medal winners here

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Judging Rosemary Sutcliff’s classic of children’s literature and historical fiction The Eagle of the Ninth on two levels

Posted in Criticism, Research, and Reviews, The Eagle of the Ninth Book on 04/04/2012 | Leave a Comment »

David Urbach has pointed me to a blogger’s 10/10 review of Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth.

Rosemary Sutcliff’s most famous book ought to be looked at in two different ways, and judged on two levels. Firstly, any reader venturing into historical fiction will be instantly drawn to it as a deserving classic. Every word of praise afforded The Eagle of the Ninth is surely deserved, and every criticism should be scrutinised heavily. This book is not only a simple story; it is a revelation. It is a sudden meeting between the children’s and young adults’ fiction of the ’80s and ’90s, when children’s literature began to be taken seriously; and literature from the early twentieth century and the nineteenth century, when writers felt able to wax philosophic and lyrical, and were not so concerned with spending a hundred pages on diligently establishing a scene and building meticulously to a grand climax or a cheap twist.
Source: The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff  | Library of Libation

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I kissed a girl at Clusium | From The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

Posted in Education, The Eagle of the Ninth Book on 24/03/2012 | 10 Comments »

All of which set me thinking about poems and songs in Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels. Such as the snatches of a legionnaires’ song in The Eagle of the Ninth.

Oh when I joined the Eagles
(As it might be yesterday)
I kissed a girl at Clusium
Before I marched away
A long march, a long march
And twenty years in store
When I left my girl at Clusium
Beside the threshing-floor
…
The girls of Spain were honey-sweet,
And the golden girls of Gaul:
And the Thracian maids were soft as birds
To hold the heart in thrall.
But the girl I kissed at Clusium
Kissed and left at Clusium,
The girl I kissed at Clusium
I remember best of all

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Rosemary Sutcliff taught archaeologist about Roman toilets

Posted in Archaeology, The Eagle of the Ninth Book, The Flower of Adonis on 17/03/2012 | 2 Comments »

A review of Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel The Flower of Adonis, historical fiction for adults, said

The Flower of Adonis is an excellent grown-up novel on the theme of Alcibiades, if the Peloponnesian War and Athens in the fifth century BC interests you. As for Eagle of the Ninth, I became (briefly) an archaeologist partly because of the book. All I know about Roman toilet behaviour I learned from her at the age of 12!

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Can mizzle be a noun as well as a verb? | Twitter debate!

Posted in Autobiography & Biography, The Eagle of the Ninth Book on 26/02/2012 | 3 Comments »

As highlighted by Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian last year, Rosemary Sutcliff once wrote  in her great historical novel and classic of children’s literature The Eagle of the Ninth about a ‘ battle fought through the grey drizzle of a west country dawn (which) is illuminated by “firebrands that gilded the falling mizzle and flashed on the blade of sword and heron-tufted war spear” ‘. I drew attention to this article once again with a post last week. Someone tweeted in response that they were surprised to come across ‘mizzle’ as a noun. Hence this set of tweets  in the  last 24 hours (read from the bottom):

On Mizzle in Rosemary Sutcliff's writing

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Rosemary Sutcliff had the eye of a painter of miniatures

Posted in Criticism, Research, and Reviews, Newspapers, The Eagle of the Ninth Book, tagged , , , on 20/02/2012 | 3 Comments »

Rosemary Sutcliff crafted her historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth from two starting points: a small bronze eagle found at Silchester, which is now in Reading Museum; and the unknown fate of the Roman Ninth Legion, which, based in York, had apparently vanished from the historical record in the early years of the 2nd century. Written, as always, “for children aged 8 to 88″ The Eagle of the Ninth is about a young centurion, Marcus Aquila, who takes up his first command on the edges of the Roman empire in south-west Britain. Severely injured during a fight with local warriors who have been inflamed by a travelling druid, he has to give up his military career. However, he  hears rumours of sightings of  the standard of his father’s lost legion – the eagle of the ninth –  north of Hadrian’s wall. He realises that if he can find it, he will restore the honour of his disgraced father and the legion he commanded.

Last year, at the time of the release of the film The Eagle, Charlotte Higgins, chief arts writer of The Guardian newspaper, wrote a long, affectionate article about her children’s favourite.

… In an interview in 1992, the year she died, she said: “I don’t write for adults, I don’t write for children. I don’t write for the outside world at all. Basically, I write for some small, inquiring thing in myself.” I have read The Eagle of the Ninth dozens of times; and as the reading self changes, so does the book. When I last read the story, it was the quality of the prose that delighted, the rightness with which Sutcliff gives life to physical sensation. A battle fought through the grey drizzle of a west country dawn is illuminated by “firebrands that gilded the falling mizzle and flashed on the blade of sword and heron-tufted war spear”. (more…)

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The New York Public Library recommends historical fiction by Rosemary Sutcliff

Posted in Criticism, Research, and Reviews, Education, The Eagle of the Ninth Book, tagged on 20/02/2012 | Leave a Comment »

Regular commenter on this blog about historical fiction and children’s literature great, Rosemary Sutcliff, Anne finds it “a pleasant surprise to see Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels recommended as cool teenage reads in the New York Public Library’s Stuff For the Teen Age blog”. (Thank you, Anne, for pointing to this at the You Write! tab and page). It starts:

Who says that all historical fiction is dull and boring? If done correctly, historical fiction is not dull at all. It’s time travel in a book. Who hasn’t imagined being transported back through time to experience what life was like during a different period in history? I particularly love reading stories that are completely out of my realm of knowledge and experience and have a sense of the romantic about it—novels about war, warriors and (ahem) gladiators tend to fit that bill.

One of the more well known authors of this type of historical fiction is Rosemary Sutcliff, a British author who primarily wrote stories set during Roman-occupied Britain circa 1st-5th centuries. Despite being set almost 2000 years ago, her books are still filled with ideas that we can all relate to today: belonging, honor, family, loyalty and pride. More interesting for us, her books are also filled with plenty of bloody battles, dirty fights, searing betrayal and love.

Source: Historical Fiction Part 1: Gladiators, Roman Soldiers and Slaves | The New York Public Library

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Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth | Echoes of Tolkien and Robert E Howard? | From the Black Gate blog

Posted in Sutcliff Discovery of the Day, The Eagle of the Ninth Book on 15/02/2012 | 4 Comments »

The Eagle of the Ninth lives in its atmosphere. Sutcliff powerfully catches both everyday Roman life and the beauty of ancient Britain. Her use of detail is effective, and her descriptive prose is powerful and suggestive. Reading the book, I was caught again and again by glinting moments of terrible beauty; by her ability to conjure up vistas of ruined fortresses and mist-covered landscapes. At different times, and for different reasons, I found myself thinking of first Tolkien, and then, oddly, Robert E. Howard.

Source: Black Gate | Blog Archive | Some Notes on The Eagle of the Ninth.

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The Eagle of the Ninth | Rosemary Sutcliff | Library of Libation review

Posted in The Eagle of the Ninth Book, tagged , , on 13/02/2012 | 1 Comment »

David Urbach (a ‘liker’ over at Rosemary Sutcliff’s Facebook page  - do join him and click the like button there!) alerted me to a 10/10 review by someone he considers “perceptive”,  of Rosemary Sutcliff‘s classic of historical fiction and children’s literature, The Eagle of the Ninth. It makes interesting reading, and I am intrigued to learn of the reaction of others who know Rosemary’s work well.   (more…)

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