Antonina by Wilkie Collins (1850) - it's all going 'belly up' for the Roman Empire

The usual starting point for Wilkie Collins is either The Woman In White or The Moonstone – probably his two best known works. I have read TWIW and loved it, haven’t got around to The Moonstone yet.. Wilkie’s complete works was the first thing I snapped up for my e-reader, and at a loss for where to begin I thought I would start at the very beginning and give Antonina a go. This was one of the first books I read on my marathon read last year and what a cracking start it was too.

Antonina is Collins’ first published novel and, uncharacteristic of most of his subsequent work, is a historical novel, set in the final years of the Roman Empire, when the walls of Rome are laid siege and totally surrounded by a huge army of Goths (unfortunately not skinny, pasty faced, black clad miserable teenagers clutching Marilyn Manson cds but the real deal) just biding their time until the depleted and outnumbered Romans are literally starved into surrender, with nothing and nobody allowed out or in.

Life goes on as normal for the Romans at first, expecting as they are help at any time   from nearby Ravenna where the imbecilic young emperor is hidden away and seems content to ignore the situation - as long as it continues to not bite him directly on the arse and that he is left in peace to throw grains of feed for his indoor flock of chickens (a striking scene very early in the novel)

It is not long before things reach crisis point in Rome, starvation and deprivation kicks in and everything starts to go horribly wrong. Amidst all of this is a struggle between the new Christian church and the outlawed worship of the pagan gods, some West Side Story style forbidden love, all manner of plot and counter plot, a bitter quest for vengeance and some really freaky goings on (the terrible ‘communal stew’ and the macabre goings on at the ‘Banquet of  Famine’ are described graphically and are especially horrific)                                                                                                                    
           
All in all it is a well paced and captivating read with plenty of memorable scenes and some larger than life characters, in particular Goisvintha, the fearsome Goth warrior with a quest for vengeance after the murder of her children and Ulpius, the scheming high priest, determined at any cost to restore to Rome worship of the outlawed pagan gods. Had Antonina been better known and filmed some time between 1960 and 1975, Vincent Price  would have been superb as Ulpius I reckon. Too late now of course…………

Elsewhere we have our eponymous young heroine, her fundamental Christian zealot father Numerian and the wealthy senator Vetranio, with a lustful eye on our young  heroine and a stoic refusal to accept that, inevitably, it is time for the feasting, cavorting and coupling to come to an end.

Antonina does not tend to be found on any study syllabus; it’s themes, meanings and all the other stuff that the student of literature has to dissect are worn too obviously on its sleeve for any in depth analysis - and all the better for it. I like a read that challenges and gets you thinking, but I love a good story too and, in the main, Antonina rarely lets up on the action and intrigue right up to the very end.

So, a fine debut and a novel less known than others (I hadn’t heard of it before I acquired Collins’ complete works) which is a shame as it has enough adventure, romance, suspense, mystery and - in places - genuine horror to keep any reader amused. Also the novel kicks into gear very early on and reads very smoothly with very few, if any, dull moments. One little niggle is the narrative style which can be at times a bit patronising to the reader, who doesn’t really need to be told ‘right then, I want you to forget him for a minute and scoot over to the other side of town where this was going on’ - not a direct quote by the way, but that’s what you have to get used to. Only a small gripe however.

So - the debut from the excellent Wilkie Collins gets a big old thumbs up from The Chairman and a respectable, resounding rating of 7/10

Thank you for reading and don’t forget if you have any ideas or suggestions for any books you might think Arthur would appreciate reading down in the cellar for a future review in the blog please let me know.

More to follow……………………………

See also my other (mostly music based) blog here; http://thethoughtsofchairmanarthur.blogspot.co.uk/

Find the complete works of Wilkie Collins - and many more - here; http://www.delphiclassics.com/