TIDES OF WAR

The setting is distant, the language elegant, and Derek Jacobi has the voice of the BBC. This is Merchant Ivory for the ear. The novel is built around Alcibiades, "the handsomest and most brilliant man of his era, as well as the most lawless. As a general, he was never beaten." So how did Athens lose the war to Sparta? Alcibiades worked for the people, the world's first batch of fickle voters. When he lost popular support, Athens lost him and then the war. In this great age of televised town meetings and bestselling novels, it's useful to be reminded--if reminded we need be--how often a majority can be wrong. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 00]