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| The Elgin Marbles | 
 enlarge | Author: Dorothy King
Publisher: Hutchinson
Category: Book
List Price: £18.99
Buy New: £14.49
You Save: £4.50 (24%)
New (5) from £11.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 155835
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0091800137
EAN: 9780091800130
ASIN: 0091800137
Publication Date: January 19, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 9 to 12 days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Gamma minus... January 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Without doubt the worst and most annoying book I purchased (silly me) during 2007. The 'argument' is shockingly unbalanced and prejudiced - in favour of Elgin when we do finally get there, and against Byron whose stance is seriously misrepresented. It is also littered with inaccuracies and historical errors en route: Demosthenes was a 'famous Greek philosopher' apparently, the date of Athens turning democratic is wrong, dates in modern Greek history are distorted or ignored in order to prop up the 'Elgin' case etc. etc. On top of that, it is tediously repetitous and in places almost even self-contradictory. Don't publishers employ competent editors who know anything any more? Or can edit? (answer: remarkably few, unfortunately). It isn't even a good polemic - for which a case might, just might, be made. Some of the history of the Parthenon is actually interesting and has some value for a general readership, but this is blown by the dubious quality what surrounds it. Zeus preserve us from some pea-brained TV executive thinking there is a glib programme lurking somewhere in this deeply flawed effort.
The author in the Acknowledgements makes a gratuitously catty remark about Evangelos Venizelos, former Greek Culture Minister, not having answered her questions - adding 'but politicians rarely do'. Given 'Dr' King's approach to accuracy and balance, others might also consider that to be rather good advice.
 Lacks lustre. March 26, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
A thorough if repetitive re-hash of the same old arguments. Needs a good edit.
Ms King needs to travel more to shake off her fearful British stuffiness. Her world view is of Bloomsbury.
Could do better February 7, 2007
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is a badly written book which reads like a first draft and needs the service of a decent editor. The main problem is repetition. Another problem is repetition, so we are repeatedly told the same thing as if for the first time on several occasions. For instance the removal of a Caryatid from Eleusis by Clarke is told three times in the space of a dozen pages. At one point she manages to repeat herself in the same paragraph.
Dr. King's attempt at narrative history founders on her inability to control her subject matter in a disciplined manner. The plot leaps backwards and forward leaving the reader bewildered. For example, the `Nisbets' are recorded as having returned to Scotland, yet in the following paragraph are still in the Levant. I found myself repeatedly flicking back through the pages with a furrowed brow wondering what I had missed.
One page 222 we are told that `Lancret' was able to read the Greek inscription on the Rosetta stone. This is the only mention of him in the entire book. Who is he? I don't know, the author didn't tell me. On page 21 Miltiades is mentioned, but has to wait several more pages before he is actually introduced as a Greek General.
The really annoying chapter of the book is the one on Marbles themselves. The publishers do not include a plan of the Parthenon, so it is almost impossible to keep track of the descriptions. There is no glossary. The use of abstruse architectural terminology could have been softened with an explanatory diagram but isn't. The end result is confusion and frustration rather then enlightenment.
I am annoyed by this book, as there is a much better book within it. Clearly the publishers had little faith in the work otherwise they would have printed it on better quality paper. As it is, within ten years this book will look older than the marbles themselves.
 Simply brilliant November 12, 2006
7 out of 13 found this review helpful
In this scholarly yet wholly accessible volume, Dr King explains the history of the Elgin Marbles and where they fit into Western civilisation. It is a contentious subject, but handled completely sympathetically. Recommended without reservation.
Whose Marbles are They? July 10, 2006
8 out of 18 found this review helpful
Dorothy King has given us a good read. While the book is titled "The Elgin Marbles," it offers much more. The book is as much a story about the Parthenon and Athens through the ages as it is about the elegant "Marbles" English diplomat Elgin rescued from oblivion. Readers should particularly welcome Ms. King's discussion of the Byzantine, Crusader and Ottoman periods that are all too often glossed over in the popular history books. Most importantly, however, the book contains a well reasoned defense of Lord Elgin and British Museum against those who would repatriate these ancient cultural treasures of international importance in the name of "political correctness."
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