Stealing Athena

March 3, 2008
Lord Elgin may be famous for bringing the Parthenon's sculptural masterpieces to England during the Napoleonic wars, but for Essex (Leonardo's Swans
), it's Lady Elgin who pays for it, in fortune and in reputation. More about money than sex, and more about art than either, Essex's latest alternates the story of Scottish heiress Mary Hamilton Nisbet Bruce, countess of Elgin, with that of Aspasia, courtesan lover of the great Pericles and the inspiration for the Parthenon's Athena. Essex begins with 21-year-old Mary, newly wed and pregnant, en route to Constantinople with her diplomat husband. She soon discovers his obsession with dismantling the Ottoman-controlled Parthenon and his plan to reconstruct it in his Greek revival home. Over years, Mary endures his neglect and gives him five children before turning to fellow Scot Robert Ferguson, a powerful Englishman who stands by her during a racy divorce trial. That trial, in which English society spurns Mary, is mirrored by Aspasia's run-in with an Athenian court for sexual impropriety. Both of their stories are overshadowed by the marbles themselves; their creation, recovery, transport and restoration provide the most vivid passages of the novel. Essex shines light on the women who inspired and protected some of the greatest art ever created, and the men who exploited them.

April 15, 2008
With the history of the Elgin Marbles as a framework, Essex moves between ancient Greece and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe to depict the lives of two womenboth scandalous in their timeswho were key to the story. Aspasia, courtesan and advisor to Athenian statesman Pericles, saw the creation of the marble masterpieces at the Parthenon (and served as model for its statue of Athena, an admittedly fictional device). Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, supported her husband, then British ambassador to Turkey, in his obsession to save this art from ruin at the hands of the Turkish occupiers of Greece and send the marbles to Britain before Napol'on could claim them for France, and she brought her considerable charm and personal wealth to this end. Essex, author of two Cleopatra novels and Leonardos Swans (2006), brings a feminist eye to her work, as she deals with female sexuality and shows Aspasia without a voice to defend herself and Mary with no legal rights. This is vibrant, well-researched historical fiction from an author whose goal is to reframe history from the female point of view.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)