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4.0 out of 5 stars
"It is a city of life", Dec 12 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.
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