Riassunto
Riassunto di L’epicureo
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love romances set in the ancient world, rich descriptions of Egypt, and stories where ideas about death and faith press on a love story.
Che cos’è questo libro
The Epicurean is a prose romance by Thomas Moore, the Irish poet best known for Irish Melodies and for Lalla Rookh. It appeared in 1827. Moore sets it in the third century after Christ and gives it to a young Greek philosopher named Alciphron, who tells his own story. Alciphron leads the school of Epicurus in Athens. He teaches that the soul dies with the body and that a calm, pleasant life is the best a person can hope for.
Then something unsettles him. A longing for a life beyond death grows in him, and it sends him south to Egypt, the land of temples, tombs and old secrets. There he meets a young woman, Alethe, and a world of priests, rites and underground trials. You get a travel tale, a love story and a quarrel between ways of living, all in rich, painted prose. The first key point is the man himself and the garden he leaves behind.
In questo riassunto
- 1A philosopher rules the Garden in AthensFree
- 2A restless longing sends him to Egypt
- 3At Memphis he meets Alethe
- 4Secret rites and trials beneath the temple
- 5Pleasure, faith and the fear of death
- 6A poet's prose, a letter from the past
Punto chiave 1 di 6
A philosopher rules the Garden in Athens
Alciphron is young, handsome and admired. He is the head of the Garden, the school in Athens that follows the teaching of Epicurus. Its members gather among trees and flowers to talk, to feast and to enjoy the day. Their creed says the gods do not trouble themselves with people, and that death is simply the end of feeling.
Moore shows this life as charming, not as a pose. Alciphron has friends, pupils, pleasures and a quick mind, and he is good at defending his school against rivals. The Epicureans of the story are not brutes. They believe that gentle enjoyment, friendship and freedom from fear make a good life, and they say so with grace.
Yet the author lets us feel a thinness in all this. Alciphron enjoys the world, but he cannot quite make his teaching answer the question of what happens when the enjoying stops. The garden is lovely, and it is also a place where hard questions are kept out by wit and music. Moore, who knew the pleasures of drawing rooms, understands how a cheerful philosophy can hide a restless heart.
This opening matters because the whole book is a test of that heart. A reader who knows the Epicurean creed will see that Moore handles it fairly. A reader who does not will learn it quickly, because Alciphron explains it as he goes. The man we meet here is confident, and the journey ahead is built to shake that confidence.
The tale is told by Alciphron looking back, so we hear a man who already knows what the adventure cost and gave him. That backward glance gives the early chapters a gentle sadness. Every pleasure in the garden is described by someone who has since learned its limits.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Alciphron
- Alciphron is a young Greek philosopher who leads the Epicurean school in Athens and meets Alethe in Egypt.
- Alethe
- Alethe is a gentle young woman connected to the temples at Memphis whose quiet hope unsettles Alciphron.
- The Egyptian priests
- The Egyptian priests guard temple secrets and require Alciphron to undergo trials before sharing their mysteries.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 56,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h 45 min
- Listening time6 h 15 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about L’epicureo
What is The Epicurean by Thomas Moore about?
It tells of Alciphron, a young Greek philosopher who leads the Epicurean school in Athens. Driven by a longing for immortality, he travels to Egypt, falls in love and faces secret temple trials that test his beliefs.
Who is Alciphron in The Epicurean?
Alciphron is the hero and the storyteller. He is the young head of the Garden, the school of Epicurus in Athens, and he is cheerful, witty and sure of his philosophy until a restless longing begins to trouble him.
What does Epicurean mean in this book?
It refers to the school of Epicurus, which taught that the soul dies with the body and that a calm life of simple pleasure, friendship and freedom from fear is best. In the book it is a creed of comfort.
When was The Epicurean written and is it a true story?
Thomas Moore published it in 1827. It is a work of fiction, a romance set in the third century after Christ, and it mixes Greek, Egyptian and early Christian details without being strict history.
Is The Epicurean hard to read?
The plot is easy to follow, and it reads well aloud.