Book Report #3: A Shadow of Magnitude (Bad Name)

This book has about the worst name possible, don't you think? What does it mean? What could it be about?

Read on........

This book is about the Elgin Marbles, those pieces of the Parthanon which were transported to Britain early in the 19th Century and can now be found in the British Museum. It is a relatively quick read: 225 pages or so. It was published in the mid-1970s, and written by a Greek-American literature professor at Salem State College in Massachusetts, Theodore Vrettos.


So much for the formalities. The book is good, but not great. Good because it tells an absolutely fascinating story. Not great, because it leaves too many questions unanswered. It makes you want to read more on the topic: I assume that by now other books have been written with perhaps a little more character analysis. This book cites a compilation of letters, newspaper articles, and legal testimony. But it misses the emotional, psychological analysis of its subjects.

Having said this, this is quite a story. Lord Elgin (really, just a youngish Brit with some, but not enough money, and a weird disease that eats away his nose) is stationed as British envoy to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople. His one goal is to take as many archeological artifacts as he can out of Greece, North Africa and Asia Minor, and he succeeds beyond even his expectations, through the active assistance of Greeks, Turks and Arabs.

But it is more than this. Look at the characters you run into: King George IV to be sure. But also, Napolean. Lord Nelson. Lady Hamilton. Lord Hamilton. Lord Byron. Lady Elgin. And many others. And none of them like each other (except of course for Lady Hamilton and Admiral Nelson).

Rivalry with the French. Battles with Napolean to win the hearts and minds of the Egptian people (and get control of Egyptian archeological cites). Pitting Greeks against Turks (why would Turks care of the Parthenon was destroyed?). Undeserved successes and equally undeserved failures.

Yes, with hard work, hard travel, and too little money, the marbles are taken off the Parthenon and transported to England. Of course, some of them sink off the Greek coast, but are rescued in shallow water and preserved. Others are diverted to France. Some linger on remote piers, no one realizing what they are. Some are buried in sand to avoid discovery.

The debate continues about whether this was theft and destruction of national patrimoney, or if the preservation of these marbles in the British Museum was the only way they could be protected from the enmity between Turks and Greeks in light of what would soon be the inevitable Greek battle for freedom from Turkish rule.

And, then there was Lord Byron, who was the first Englishman to not only feel deeply that the removal of these works of art was criminal, but who had the ability to publicize it through his poetry and capture the imagination of thousands of English, turning Elgin the hero into Elgin the scoundral.

As in all real life stories, nothing turns out well. Byron dies of an infectious disease. Elgin loses his fortune. Lady Elgin has an affair with a young English officer, leading to civil and criminal litigation that ruins their lives as well. Only the marbles last.

I read most of the book while on jury duty. It relates one more story that, until now, had totally evaded me.