The Virtues of War

Seven Pressfield's novel of Alexander the Great, The Virtues of War is not a historical novel - at least, not in the usual sense. This story does not have the intimacy and domesticity that I'd associate with most historical fiction . Nor is it a bare history, but rich with action and insight. Pressfield's novel reads more like an unearthed classic, at times sparse in detail, with even the very conversations reported quite formally and without embellishment, yet seasoned with interesting asides. From time to time a little more detail is offered, sometimes to flesh out significant moments. Given the great expanse of material that Pressfield attempts to cover, his taut style is probably borne of necessity, as the expansive drama of Alexander's campaigns unfolds. The book opens on the banks of the Indus, with Alexander's forces struggling to find a way forward and his oldest, once loyal Macedonian troops, weary after eight years of marching and fighting, have been rounded up into a troop of 'Malcontents' to keep their discontent from infecting the whole army. From there, in a series of long flashbacks, we learn something of Alexander's youth, and follow his path of conquest across Asia. At times the flashback style is a little frustrating, as you need to push the 'current' action aside to be immersed in the past (often told in 'historic present' tense, lending it a sense of urgency).

For me the strength of the book was here in the guts of the text - the magnificent battle scenes. Steven Pressfield has the knack of describing battle lines vividly and concisely, so that you can visualise the action clearly, while allowing the narrative to flow. "He sees three brigades of sarissa infantry, forty-five hundred men, sixteen ranks deep, covering three hundred yards of the nine hundred yard front... Our front looks like a forest of murder: one serried, immaculately ordered mass, sarissas at the upright, with their honed iron blades twenty feet in the air..." The ebb and flow of battle is interspersed with Alexander's brilliant tactical insight, analyzing the mind of the enemy and indeed his own men. Pressfield's depth of knowledge of the dress and armaments of the period is impressive, and his thorough research coupled with the fast pace should keep the most finicky of wargaming experts entertained.

The Virtues of War is certainly not an 'easy' read, and there are times when the author asks rather a lot of the reader: "What I abhor most about such obduracy is that it robs me of the occasion to be magnanimous." Language like this comes across as incongruously pompous , especially several sentences after a statement like "The bastards nearly corked me twice..." However, it is a Herculean challenge to take on writing in the voice of such a man - noble, yet a seasoned soldier who spurned luxury - and for the most part, Pressfield's Alexander comes across as a convincing, three-dimensional character. As well as exploring Alexander's generalship throughout the book, Pressfield attempts to reveal something of the inner character of the man, his virtue, and the inevitable fatal flaw. Largely this is done through self-analysis on Alexander's part, but it is also ultimately reavealed through the progress of the narrative itself. In case we are asleep to this possiblity, clues are given the reader from time to time, especially towards the close of the book, where the significance of earlier episodes falls into place.

I'm not sure that Pressfield has handled Alexander the Great's "fall" as well as his "rise", and the structure of the book becomes a little jarring in the last chapters. In part this might be due to the scarcity of historical information on which to build a narrative, or perhaps the limitations of space. This however is redeemed by the deft twisting into place of the book's broad themes. While I felt the flashback style created a certain discontinuity, and I disliked being placed in the person of Itanes, listening to Alexander's narration (prefering, as a reader, to inhabit the hero's mind, or be the godlike "third person omniscient") the technique has its uses, and allows a quite satisfying conclusion to the novel.