Author

Publication

2008 - Doubleday, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

113,000 words, Guess

Page Count

452 pages

Identifiers

  • ISBN-100385519710
  • ISBN-139780385519717
  • Goodreads2239431
  • LibraryThing4919563
  • OCLC Control Number222039296
and 1 more

Classifications

  • DDC813/.54

Description

The author of the bestselling Leonardo's Swans traverses the centuries into the hearts of two extraordinary women to reveal the passions, ambitions, and controversies surrounding the Elgin Marbles.The Elgin Marbles have been displayed in the British Museum for nearly two hundred years, and for just as long they have been the center of a raging controversy. In Stealing Athena, Karen Essex chronicles the Marbles' amazing journey through the dynamic narratives of Mary Nisbet, wife of the Earl of Elgin, the British ambassador to Constantinople, and Aspasia, the mistress of Perikles, the most powerful man in Athens during that city's Golden Age.At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the twenty-one-year-old, newly wed Countess of Elgin, a Scottish heiress and celebrated beauty, enchanted the power brokers of the Ottoman Empire, using her charms to obtain their permission for her husband's audacious plan to deconstruct the Parthenon and bring its magnificent sculptures to England. Two millennia earlier, Aspasia, a female philosopher and courtesan, and a central figure in Athenian life, plied her wits, allure, and influence with equal determination, standing with Perikles at the center of vehement opposition to his vision of building the most exquisite monuments the world had ever seen.Rich in romance and intrigue, greed and glory, Stealing Athena is an enthralling work of historical fiction and a window into the intimate lives of some of history's most influential and fascinating women.

Description

Chronicles of the Marbles' amazing journey through the dynamic narratives of Mary Nisbet, wife of the Earl of Elgin, the British ambassador to Constantinople, and Aspasia, the mistress of Perikles, the most powerful man in Athens during that city's Golden Age.

Subjects

Topics

FictionHistoryLiteratureElgin marblesAspasia -- FictionElgin marbles -- FictionFerguson, Mary Nisbet, -- 1777-1855 -- Fiction

Places

People

AspasiaEmma Hamilton Lady (1761?-1815)Mary Nisbet Ferguson (1777-1855)

Genres

  • Fiction

Other Editions

  • Stealing Athena: a novelDoubleday2008-01-01

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