Gore Vidal and Antiquity: Sex, Politics and Religion

This book examines Gore Vidals lifelong engagement with the ancient world. Incorporating material from his novels, essays, screenplays and plays, it argues that his interaction with antiquity was central to the way in which he viewed himself, his writing, and his world. Divided between the three primary subjects of his writing sex, politics, and religion this book traces the lengthy dialogue between Vidal and antiquity over the course of his sixty-year career.

Broughall analyses Vidals portrayals of the ancient past in novels such as Julian (1964), Creation (1981) and Live from Golgotha (1992). He also shows how classical literature inspired Vidals other fiction, such as The City and the Pillar (1948), Myra Breckinridge (1968), and his Narratives of Empire (19672000) novels. Beyond his fiction, Broughall examines the ways in which antiquity influenced Vidals careers as a playwright, an essayist and a satirist, and evaluates the influence of classical authors and their works upon him.

Of interest to students and scholars in classical studies, reception studies, American politics and literature, and the work of Gore Vidal, this volume presents an original perspective on one of the most provocative writers and intellectuals in post-war American letters. It offers new insights into Vidals attitudes, influences, and beliefs, and throws fresh light upon his patrician self-fashioning and his mercurial output.