I found this book at the library by chance. It's another historical novel loosely based on fact. The "modern-day" part takes place between 1799 and 1816 and is written from the perspective of Mary Nisbet, the wife of the Earl of Elgin, who was sent to Constantinople (now Istanbul) as an ambassador for Great Britain. The amazing thing is she was 21 when they arrived. Mary's husband has a passion for Greek architecture and art. In addition to his role as ambassador, his personal goal is to copy and/or appropriate as many Greek ruins as possible to take back to Great Britain to preserve them, glorify the Empire (because only the British can truly protect and appreciate these amazing artifacts!) and his own home.
The "historical" part is the story of Aspasia (again a real person), the concubine of the Perikles, the most powerful man in Athens during the Golden Age. Mary does a lot of reading to educate herself about her husband's passion. One of the books she reads is about Aspasia who was very intelligent and well educated.
Being a historical novel, the role of women in both time periods comes into play and (as Tanya has already noted) can be quite annoying, but was true to life.
So far I'm finding the book fairly well written and interesting. Karen Essex has written several other historical novels that look interesting: Kleopatra, Pharaoh, and Leonardo's Swans.
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I just finished Stealing Athena. I highly recommend it. It's a fascinating story, actually two stories. If I was Mary Elgin, I would have let her husband rot in prison in France! He was imprisoned (twice by Napoleon) primarily because Napoleon wanted all the Greek sculptures he'd stolen. Mary's husband was a spendthrift which wouldn't have been so bad if it was his money he was spending. Most of it was Mary's. She was an amazing woman.
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