Customer Reviews:
 "It is a city of life" December 13, 2007
Setting his tale in Turkey, Peter Ackroyd's strange and adventurous novel revolves around the fate of Heinrich Schliemann, the 19th century arcaeologist cum smuggler of ancient artifacts who mined the site of Troy for his own wealth and glory. Although, Ackroyd in this story has renamed him Heinrich Obermann, the author still presents exhilarating expose of a man who was a committed egoist and became obsessed, at whatever cost, with recreating the lost glories of the Homeric world.
Heinrich is already middle-aged when he travels to Athens to court the young Sophia Chrysanthis, a girl of wealthy means who understands English, and more importantly, reads Homer with avidity. A stout fifty-year-old who wears pebble glasses and his "great round head like a cannon ball," the portly archaeologist beguiles his beautiful bride with tales of Homer and the legendary Greek gods even as he describes to her his excavations at Troy, and his previous excavations at Ithica "known to all the civilized world."
With dowry of fifteen thousand dollars promised to her parents, Sophia is packed off with Obermann off to the winswept plains of Southern Anatolyia and the historic site of Troy, where the waves of exaltation constantly surround her, especially now as she's in the company of this man who will carry her forward. Sophia never once in her life dreamed that she would be sailing away to Turkey with such an accomplished and notorious German husband, while for Heinrich the struggle is over, as he has gained, as always the object he desires.
When Sophia arrives at Troy, she sees a "fortress hill" that teems with life, like some nest or burrow, yet she remains distracted by all of the noise and activity around her. Soon, however, Sophia proves herself to be a rapid and eager student and Obermann's reserve towards her seems to lighten. She even becomes somewhat of a healing force who rapidly charms the diggers, tempering much of the animosity that exists between the site manager Kadri Bey, Obermann's young Russian asistant Leonid, and Obermann himself.
The professor certainly has a genuine passion for discovery, searching for Troy like a lover, his determination to discover the old city and disclose it to the world, becoming like am uncontrollable fervor even as he believes every word of Homer to be true. He instructs Sophia that there is "truth in all of the Greek legends, we live in a hard age, an age of iron and we need these stories."
When Sophia unexpectedly uncovers an ancient floor that is awash in gold earrings, bracelets and vases, hidden for five thousand years, Heinrich hides them from Kadri Bey, determined to smuggle these glories of Troy out of Turkey. Meanwhile, Sophia begins to question the motivations of her husband, especially when he forces her to take the priceless pieces across the plain to the farm of his best friend Theodore Skopelos.
In due course, Sophie's suspicions are aroused and she wonders what exactly is the relationship between Heinrich and Theodore and also what is the origin of all the hysterical, wild laughter that sounds like the laughter of a mad woman? The arrival of two new characters: The American archaeologist William Brand who later meets an unfortunate end, perhaps at the hand of Obermann, and the English historian Alexander Thornton, do much to reinforce Sophia's growing anger and mistrust at the husband.
Brand is already half in love with Sophia although he would never have admitted this and he finds himself continually bewildered by Obermann's restless, impatient, and emphatic manner of being. In Troy, Heinrich sees an army of Homeric heroes, while William merely sees a tribe of alien people who cultivated human sacrifice.. Later, a discovery of clay tablets, causes Thornton to arrive at the dig, which in turn sets off a chain of events that carry sinister ramifications.
Sophia, of course, ends up finding herself the unwilling victim, submerged in Thornton's romantic intentions, while unsuccessfully endeavoring to remain positive about her new life with her husband. As Obermann's faith in his wife and in the world around him gradually unravels, Aykroyd presents the history of Troy in all of its ancient grandeur. The novel is about the importance of history and the nature of faith, and how even the best intentions can fall apart with the passage of time.
The Fall of Troy is certainly a bracing read even as the prose comes across as a bit uneven and clunky. In his lifetime, Obermann certainly didn't represent the best of the Homeric traditions; he was without doubt possessed of a brilliant mind but he was hardly heroic. Ackroyd's novel ultimately portrays him as a sort of shifty and selfish madman who gravitates between a weird kind of self-delusion and a lunacy formed from his own belief that he was immortal, perhaps even one of the Greek Gods that he so admired and loved. Mike Leonard December 07.
Entertaining and quietly moving. October 22, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Hugely enjoyable. This book had the effect of reawakening an old fascination of mine with the Trojan material. Of course, Ackroyd is a great story-teller, and this one realy captures the feel of mid-19th century excavations on the hill of Hisarlik. The central character is clearly Heinrich Schlieman under another name, and the excitement and passion for the old stories held by that individual is convincingly and sympathetically done. The elaborations that Ackroyd adds, however, pique curiosity to the utmost, and it was these elements that sent me scurrying back to the archaelogical books to try to find out the truth. Read it -- it's short; and then go back to Homer and the rest. It's so good, I wish it all were true, especially whats at the bottom of the mound.
 Good but not great September 25, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is the first novel by Ackroyd that I have read. Although I came with no preconceptions, I must admit that I was hoping for the "gripping and terrible" story, promised on the back cover. What I actually got was a mediocre story.
The book follows the archaeologist, Herr Obermann, whose passion for Troy and its legend seems to know no bounds - it posesses him and all that he percieves in the world. In deed, his passion is so large that he seeks out a Greek wife who is able to read the works of Homer. Sophia, his new wife is much younger than Obermann, but out of duty to her parents, and because she also has a great love for Troy, she agrees to the marriage and determines to make the best of it.
Yet Obermann's obsession with Troy slowly begins to take more of a sinister twist. He makes his findings fit his own theories, and when an American begins to question his work, he just so happens to come down with a mysterious illness.
As the novel progresses to its ending, Sophia aslo learns that Obermann has other, darker secrets that he is keeping from her - a secret that will ultimately lead him to his own destiny.
Ackroyd has done a good job at creating the character of Obermann. Although he is not very likeable, he is not two dimensional. Sophia, also is quite believeable - the word I would use to sum her up is 'dutiful'. Yet, despite this good characterisation, the story, for me, left a lot to be desired. The love affair seemed rushed and intangible; I saw it more as a way to help the ending along. Even the ending was an anti-climax. It was not the terrible and gripping ending that was promised; for a seasoned writer, I expected more.
Overall, this is an OK read. Good for a short while, but not something that will grip you from page one right up to the very end. Like archaeology, you may have to dig a little deeper.
 A satisfying little book September 16, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This novel is based on the lives of the German excavator of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann (here called Heinrich Obermann) and his Greek second wife and fellow archaeologist Sophia Engastromenos (here called Sophia Chrysanthis). Both are deeply devoted to the Iliad and to Troy, but Obermann prides himself not only on his scientific skills but also on his intuition and imagination which make him identify physical features (beautifully described) with the very spots which Homer's gods and heroes had trodden. He is superstitious and even believes, when they experience an earthquake, that it was Zeus speaking. So vivid is his imagination that he takes liberties - to put it mildly - with archaeological evidence when it does not fit his theories (as the real Schliemann did also). In this novel he is a most unattractive character: loud, uncouth, unashamedly boastful of his genius, peremptory and controlling, and intolerantly dogmatic whenever his conclusions are challenged by other archaeologists - as they are in this novel by two successive visitors to his excavations. Sophia is more ready to listen to them, and she has already caught her husband out in telling downright lies - and she will discover more of what he is capable of. And then Ackroyd's own imagination, which for much of the book has been tethered to aspects of the real Schliemann's life, takes off to a purely invented ending that is, however, aptly in tune with the kind of myths in which Obermann had so passionately believed.
A tale well told.
 Disappointing September 6, 2007
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I was really looking forward to this book but was ultimately disappointed. Peter Ackroyd's fiction usually appears to be between 200 and 250 pages and his stories usually fit this perfectly (Lambs of London, Dan Leno both superb). It is almost as though the subject of Troy is too vast to fit and the story gets wrapped up far too quickly to satisfy. For the first 150 pages the story and the writing is great even though I thought the main character too much over the top to be believable. The constant references to Troy and scenes actually became tiresome and smacked just a little of assistants researches being liberally dumped into the story. The story and idea promised a lot but for once Peter doesn't seem to have pulled it off.
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