This is one of my favorite books. Gore Vidal's writing is one of a kind and brings the ancient world to life. When reading this book you become absorbed, you feel like you are there witnessing the tales of an old man on the shores of the Aegean recalling a life that covers the philosophy of Zoroaster, Confucius, Lao Tzu, and the Buddha. Philosophy, history, religion, life itself - the themes of 'Creation,' and these themes are brilliantly elucidated through Vidal's story telling. This is an unpa...

Persian history at the peak of the Achaemenid Empire (5th century BCE) is pretty neatly summed up in a few lines from our high school world history courses, largely in connection with Greek history. We hear a few snippets about the Persian rulers, Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes; a big paragraph about Pheidippides, the runner who sprinted from Marathon to warn the Spartans (which was pointless, since they refused to march at the time) of the Persian attack (which was comeuppance for supporting a revol...

If I were to do a detailed review of Creation, I would have to include quite a number of critical exemptions, caveats and clarifications. With that in mind, I’ll keep my views brief and uncluttered! I did really enjoy the novel and was hugely impressed with its scope and scholarship. One aspect of the book I didn’t enjoy was the style of the first hand narration which veered a little towards the didactic in my view. Vidal was an enormously learned and eminent academic and that is apparent throug...

"I am blind. But I am not deaf. Because of the incompleteness of my misfortune, I was obliged yesterday to listen for nearly six hours to a self-styled historian whose account of what the Athenians like to call the "Persian Wars" was nonsense of a sort that were I less old and more privileged, I would have risen in my seat at the Odeon and scandalized all of Athens by answering him. But then, I know the origin of the GREEK wars. He does not. How could he? How could any Greek? I spent most of my

This is a magnificent novel by Gore Vidal. I had read a translation of it many years ago. However a few weeks ago Vidal was in Toronto and that was how I began looking at the novel again. For those Iranians who were angry at the movie 300, this book works as a relief. The narrator is an imaginary Cyrus Spitama, who Vidal describes as the grandson of Zoroaster (Zarathushtra). I have to add that Zoroaster lived somewhere between 4000 to 7000 years ago. Recent studies are in favour of 7000, includi...

This is a well-informed and ambitious historical novel set in 5th century B.C. During the reign of Darius and Xerxes and the Persian-Greek wars. The book is in the form of a chronicle of the life of Cyrus Spitama, a grandson of the prophet Zoroaster. It takes the form of a narration of his life story to a young Democritus.Starting with the death of Zoroaster and his early life at the persian court, the book then chronicles his travels to India where he meets Gosala, Mahavira and the Buddha and C...

I recall once that Gore Vidal included this title on a list he provided some interviewer (one supposes, given the vagaries of memory) of Books Which Everyone Ought To Read. And don't quibble with me about who is and who is not included in "everyone" because, well, either it includes everyone or it's slightly hyperbolic. Nor please to quibble about the "ought" because I have really no patience nor tolerance for those who say there is only an is and never an ought, even if patience and tolerance a...

Not only is Gore Vidal a snazzy dresser and an outspoken political analyst -- he's one of the best historical fiction authors going. This just might be one of my "marooned on an island" books.

In many ways, Creation can lay claim to being the motherlode of all historical fiction novels. What a period Vidal chose to write about! He simpky couldn't have picked a more fertile time. Requiring only a little elasticity with regards to the accepted dates, the roll call of historical heavyweights making an appearance in this book is simply astonishing.Pericles, Xerxes, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Zoroaster - names to conjure with one and all.Persian diplomat Cyrus Spitama, grandson of Zoroas...

One of my favourite books on Iran and history. I first read this in 1982 when I was travelling in India. I had heard of the book before I began an around the world trip in 1981-82 and picked up a dog-eared copy in New Delhi. It had a profound effect on me because most of ancient history came from the Greek side of things primarily from the "Father of History" Herodotus. Vidal took a different tact and wrote this book from the Persian side of history and rightly so. I don't know why Old World his...

An impressive and fascinating work of historical fiction. It contains the biography of the extraordinary (but fictional) life of Cyrus Spitama, a great-uncle of Democritus (the first Western philosopher to come up with a materialistic philosophy based on atoms). Told by the main character and written down by Democritus himself :). The main character is also the grandson of Zoroaster and is educated at the court of Darius, the 'King of Kings' of Persia. His life is situated in the 6th-5th century...

Socrates, Pythagoras, Sophocles, Pericles, Darius the Great, Buddha, Lao-Tzu, and Confucius all lived in the Fifth Century BCE, and the ideas conceived at that time continue to shape the cultures of this day. Gore Vidal imagined a man, Cyrus Spitama, a direct of relative of Zarathustra, who managed to visit and learn from these great thinkers.On one level, the book is a study of comparative religions. Cyrus believed the only important issue was how and why the world was created. He felt most of

Hey Petra thanks for the like : ) As full of himself mr. Vidal was, this book is such a masterwork! I'd like to read it again sometime.

An historical novel of truly epic proportions20 October 2012 I didn't realise that Gore Vidal was what is called a revisionist when it came to his historical novels, but it only makes me want to pick up more of his books because revisionists tend to give us an alternate view of history that differs from the history that is written by the winners. This book is one of those examples: not so much a retelling of Herodotus but rather a version of Herodotus written from the view of a Persian. For thos...

Creation is my most favourite novel on the subject of an ancient history, and not because it had opened my eyes to some antediluvian clandestine truths but because of its freewheeling stylishness.I am blind. But I am not deaf. Because of the incompleteness of my misfortune, I was obliged yesterday to listen for nearly six hours to a self-styled historian whose account of what the Athenians like to call ‘the Persian Wars’ was nonsense of a sort that were I less old and more privileged, I would ha...

The cause of the coming into being of all things is the ceaseless whirl, which I call necessity; and everything happens according to necessity. Thus, creation is constantly created and re-created.This book initially drove me insane. I think it was a combination of a lot of things. Firstly, I have too many books I'm reading at the same time and I got overwhelmed. Secondly, this book demands you to read it slowly and savor every sentence which I just wasn't up to. And lastly, I was in a horrid rea...

This is less a novel than a guided tour of ancient philosophy all held together through the tenuous threads of one (fictional) man’s life. Cyrus Spitama is a Persian in service to the king of kings of Persia, where he encounters many of the most famous men of the age. The fifth century BC was an amazing time in world history. In Greece you have Socrates, Anaxagoras, Democritus; in Persia there is Zoroaster (at least possibly, though I suspect he was much earlier); in India you have Mahavira, Gos...

I give up. I expected to love this book, but Gore Vidal somehow managed to take an amazing concept for a story and turn it into one of the dullest books i've ever tried to slog through. The narrator has little depth, despite his unnecessary verbosity, and neither do most of the people he encounters, despite their being some of the most influential people in world history. It is obvious that Vidal did an extensive amount of research for the book and attempted to include every sliver of informatio...

This and Julian may be my favorite novels by Vidal, not that I've read them all yet.Creation postulates, within the realm of plausibility, a character who, in the course of his lifetime, travels from Persia to India to China to Greece and meets such luminaries as Zoroaster, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius and Herodotus. It is done amusingly, but seriously enough that a reader unfamiliar with the period might be inspired to pursue a more serious study.

This is not one of my favorite books of all time, but I am giving it five stars anyway because it truly is amazing. Vidal's grasp of history never fails to impress me. Creation is a long rambling journey across the fourth century B.C as viewed by Cyrus Spitama, a Persian diplomat and the grandson of Zoroaster. Vidal breaks several of the cardinal rules of fiction, and the book can seem a little exhausting at times; the lengthy conversations about ancient Greek politics would have been more inte...