Reviews
"What an invigorating book! Cooper asks a haunting question: how different would our world be had this man married either his concubine--who was the loyal mother of his child--or the young heiress he was betrothed to, instead of withdrawing from sexual relationships altogether?" -- Sarah Ruden, translator of Augustine's Confessions, "An evocative reconstruction of the bright lives of four women who each made an indelible impact on a towering figure of the early church. St. Augustine may have helped to shape the Christian world--but he, in turn, was shaped by them. Kate Cooper's wonderful book resuscitates and restores them to their rightful place in Augustine's legacy." -- Kara Cooney, author of When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, "A marvelous achievement. Kate Cooper shines her historian's spotlight on an Augustine so vivid in his Confessions , but so often overlooked: a man who loved and appreciated women...Cooper sketches an evocative landscape of the late Roman world in Milan and North Africa--from its courts to its churches, from military encampments to rural villas, from empresses to the enslaved. Above all, her's is a world of human beings suffering heartache and loneliness while trying to reconcile the pull of the heart with the lure of ambition." -- Susanna Elm, Sidney H. Ehrman Professor of European History, University of California, Berkeley, "Highly readable, well-researched and imaginative... To those of us who thought we knew Augustine well, Queens of a Fallen World opens new vistas on his world and legacy."-- Wall Street Journal, "A bold and imaginative venture into challenging territory. Cooper casts new light onto the women of the ancient world--and one of the founders of Western thought." -- Sarah Gristwood, author of The Tudors in Love and Game of Queens, A masterpiece of the historian's art. With a rare balance of state-of-the-art erudition and felicitous hypotheses, Kate Cooper has brought the hidden women in Augustine's early life into the light. Governed throughout by a humane sense of the texture of a distant late Roman society, she captures women's voices which we would not otherwise have heard.-- Peter Brown, author of Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, "An enchanting tour de force of sensitive and probing historical writing. Queens of a Fallen World reveals the traces of forgotten female voices in Augustine's loves, losses, regrets, and consolations. Cooper's enquiry into the influence of women on Augustine--whether empress, mother, lover, saint, or slave--enriches his legacy." -- Adrienne Mayor, author of The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World
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Synopsis
FINALIST: THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2023 The vibrant and surprising lives of the women in Augustine's Confessions While many know of Saint Augustine and his Confessions , few are aware of how his life and thought were influenced by women. Queens of a Fallen World tells a story of betrayal, love, and ambition in the ancient world as seen through a woman's eyes. Historian Kate Cooper introduces us to four women whose hopes and plans collided in Augustine's early adulthood: his mother, Monnica of Thagaste; his lover; his fiancée; and Justina, the troubled empress of ancient Rome. Drawing upon their depictions in the Confessions , Cooper skilfully reconstructs their lives against the backdrop of their fourth-century society. Though they came from different walks of life, each found her own way of prevailing in a world ruled by men. A refreshingly complex and compelling portrait of Augustine, Queens of a Fallen World is the riveting story of four remarkable women who set him on course to change history.
