The business affairs of Mr Julius Caesar / Bertolt Brecht ; translated by Charles Osborne ; edited by Anthony Phelan and Tom Kuhn with assistance from Charlotte Ryland.
Translated from the German: Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Book one: The career of a distinguished young man -- Book two: Our Mr C. -- Book three: Classic administration of a province -- Book four: The three-headed monster -- Proposed contents of the rest of the novel -- Historical events and personages -- Map of the Roman Empire -- Temporal structure of the novel.
Summary:
Bertolt Brecht's extraordinary historical novel presents an aspiring scholar's efforts to write an idealized life of Julius Caesar twenty years after his death. But the historian abandons his planned biography, confronted by a baffling range of contradictory views. Was Caesar an opportunist, a permanently bankrupt businessman who became too big for the banks to allow him to fail--as his former banker claims? Did he stumble into power while trying to make money, as suggested by the diary of his former slave? Across these different versions of Caesar's career in the political and economic life of Rome, Brecht wryly contrasts the narratives of imperial progress with the reality of grasping self-interest, in a sly allegory that points to the Weimar Republic and perhaps even to our own times. Brecht reminds his readers of the need for constant vigilance and critical suspicion towards the great figures of the past. In an echo of his dramatic theories, the audience is confronted with its own task of active interpretation rather than passive acceptance--we have to work out our own views about Mr Julius Caesar. This edition is translated by Charles Osborne and features an introduction and editorial notes by Anthony Phelan and Tom Kuhn.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.