Over the week, I read two great accountings of women in power in very different contexts. It felt natural to include them both in one review.
The Great Mrs. Elias ****
I knew very little about Hannah Davis going into this, which helped as it read like a page-turner. Barbara Chase-Riboud does a great job in story form of presenting Hannah’s plight and the tough choices she had to make. The dialogue could’ve used some sprucing up, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this quality work of historical fiction, which read like a more competent, non-racist version of a Jackie Collins novel.
Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome****
Women are often seen as “the power behind the throne” in a lot of history texts but rarely does writing look at that power as effectively Guy de la Bédoyère does here for the women of the Julio-Claudian Roman emperors. Deftly sifting through the many sexist fictions attached to women such as Livia and both Agrippinas, Bédoyère does a great job of…perhaps not humanizing in the way that word is understood nowadays but bringing to life the stories of the mothers, sisters, nieces, wives, etc. that formed the backbone of the dynasty. People reading this searching for Cersei Lannister inspirations might be disappointed (well, except for Messalina). Bédoyère does address the lurid accounts of some of these women but only through historical record and since the historical record is heavily skewed against them, he breaks down their options and how they realistically might have come to the decisions they made. An excellent piece of historical writing.