...in the extraordinarily graceful 1995 production of Persuasion, which I must add to my collection one day, playing opposite the wanly luminous Amanda Root, an actress of such depth and grace as to make, say, Emma Thompson look like Paris Hilton.

We just finished the first season of Rome last night. The producers have taken some grotesque historical liberties, and traduced the good names of two or three perfectly respectable Roman matrons, but much can be forgiven here, as with Fellini Satyricon, on account of the vividness with which the sheer alien quality of the ancient world is conveyed. As to Ciarán Hinds' Caesar, I was both impressed and disappointed: largely impressed because his performance conveyed the icy singleness of purpose of the man; slightly disappointed because the portrayal somehow missed his titanic character. Caesar wasn't merely a Roman politician of unusual determination and unusual talent—he was a different creature altogether from the contemporaries who killed him, standing in relation to his profession and his era roughly as Leonardo da Vinci did to the corresponding elements. I blame here the script, and not the actor's craft.

An interesting biography of Caesar (The Education of Julius Caesar) was published a couple of decades ago by one Arthur Kahn, who was almost certainly, to judge from his CV and from the bio itself, what used to be called "an unreconstructed communist," albeit in his case closeted. If you can get past the almost comically Marxist stylistic tics, there's much to admire in both the account and in the subject. I seem to recall as well that there was a much-admired bio published in Germany in the 1990s...perhaps CRC can help me out here?

cordially,