Friday, June 8, 2012

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy

Although historical figures are often ripe for fiction, doing justice to them often poses a challenge for many an author, thereby making historical fiction somewhat of a hit-or-miss genre. With Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore, British author Stella Duffy sets out to chronicle the life of Theodora, the sixth-century actress and prostitute turned Byzantine Empress, and somehow manages to downgrade a remarkable life story into a cheap, plodding Harlequin novel.

This unabashedly bawdy novel begins with Theodora’s childhood as a destitute young actress and dancer, and chronicles the procession of her career to prostitute to governor’s concubine to, eventually, the wife of Emperor Justinian I. During this time she makes a name for herself as the biggest star of the Hippodrome of Constantinople, travels to Africa, has a spiritual awakening in the middle of the desert, and undertakes secret missions for the Orthodox Church. At times, throughout her ordeals, she must work her way through the various political and religious disputes throughout the Roman Empire, such as the rise of Chalcedonian Christianity, and the clashing of the two political parties: the Greens and the Blues.

Contrary to what the title would have readers believe, we are only granted a look inside her life as an actress and as a whore; not so much as an empress, as the novel comes to a screeching halt with her marriage to Justinian. The majority of the book—which is everything leading up to her marriage—is weighed down by a lack of direction and character development. In portraying several historical figures as one-dimensional cartoons whose actions are purely driven by exposition, Duffy has reduced Theodora—who was perhaps the most influential and powerful woman in the history of the Roman Empire—into a lifeless, generic tart.

Duffy’s writing style is long-winded and digressive, as she makes excessive use of run-on sentences as a means of prose construction. That, coupled with the fact that she seems to be making it up as she goes along, turns the novel into a rambling sequence of events with a contrived, tacked-on ending that leaves loose threads untied, and questions about Theodora’s life unanswered.

In short, this pulpy romance novel does not do justice to the intriguing historical figure that is Theodora. Those interested in her story may be better off seeking nonfiction works such as The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by 18th-century British historian Edward Gibbon, or the more recent Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium by King’s College London professor Judith Herrin.

2 comments:

  1. That sounds like quite the disappointing read.

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  2. This is the first time I've ever responded to a blog review, but as you seem to have read an entirely different book than the one I wrote (or at least the one I believe I wrote) I'd love your blog readers to also have the opportunity to check out these reviews, among many others in the UK, from respected mainstream reviewers, who certainly didn't find anything 'Harlequin' in the novel :
    The Guardian : http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/17/theodora-actress-empress-whore-duffy
    The Financial Times : http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/65c1bc0e-8ae8-11df-bead-00144feab49a.html#axzz1xNZRKBC3

    Of course, not every book is for every reader, but I can assure you, reducing Theodora to a 'lifeless generic tart' was the exact opposite of what I was trying to do, and while I'm very disappointed that is all you got from the book, I am relieved it was not the only reaction.

    Perhaps, if you are more interested in Theodora's Empress years, you'll prefer the sequel which Penguin publish in the US in autumn. In this first novel of the two I was more interested in trying to investigate why she became the woman she was reputed to be - something that most certainly did need making up, given the lack of actual information about her childhood and youth. A lack that is very common in the lives of great women, even today, but all the more poignant in Theodora's life, when for so long too many people took Procopius as the only valid source. While Gibbon is a respected writer, I would also recommend your readers check out William Rosen, James J O'Donnell, Judith Herrin's Byzantium, Paolo Cesaretti, and Michael Maas's Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian, for wider-ranging views on the time and the people.

    with very best wishes
    Stella Duffy

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