A Real Hero?
Customer Rating: 
This is about an awful man, but what a man! He's devious, deceptive, lucky, pathetic, poor, brilliant, then rich--wow.
His real life was amazing, but I want to read about heroes, and he's NOT heroic. There's nothing wrong with the author's writing ability, but she picked such a loser of a man to write about that I wasn't rooting for him.
Can I recommend this book? Only if you're really interested in ancient Troy.
Dishonesty pays well!
Customer Rating: " The true measure of a career is to be able to be content, even proud, that you succeeded through your own endeavors without leaving a trail of casualties in your wake."
Alan Greenspan- Dishonesty
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The "... hot headed, touchy, and dreamy..."[pg. 61] egomaniac, "Storyteller, archaeologist, and crook -- Heinrich Schliemann left his mark upon the world."[72] thanks to his vivid "... imagination changed archaeology forever."[pg.72] through misrepresentation of facts which paid off handsomely. "I have had more luck than foresight in my life," he admitted. It could also be said that he made his own luck."[72.] "... his enemies simply could not stand him. They were disgusted by his romaticism, his boasting, his hysterical excitement... a shrill and vulgar little man."[pg. 56.]
He was offensive:
-- with regard to the meeting of his second wife "The Engastromenos family was excited by the prospect of having a millionaire in the family..." [pg. 38]. "When Heinrich spoke to her alone he asked her point-blank, 'Why do you wish to marry me?' Sophia replied, 'Because my parents have told me that you are a rich man!'"[pg. 38]. Infuriated, he pondered that "truth hurts."
In the marriage, the much younger Sophia was wise in thought "...Henry was a genius and that geniuses were not quite like other people."
-- Instead of carefully sifting through the mound, layer by layer, he decided to dig out vast trenches -- rather as if he were removing slices from a cake... And so he dug, violently and impatiently. Frank Calvert advised him to proceed with care, to sift through what he was throwing away, but Heinrich was not a cautious man. He wacked away at the mound as if it were a pinata.
Modern archaeologists do not dig like this. They remove the earth gently and keep detailed records of what they find. If they find an artifact that isn't what they're hoping to find, they don't discard the artifact: they change their ideas. Instead of looking for something, they examine whatever comes to light. Heinrich, ofcourse, was looking for Homer's Troy. 'Troy.. was sacked twice,' modern archaeologists remark, 'once by the Greeks and once by Heinrich Schliemann.' It is generally agreed that Schliemann did more damage than the Greeks." [pages 40-41.]
--"The admission 'I shared Frank Calvert's opinion' changed gradually to 'Frank Calvert, the famous archaeologist... shares my opinion...' Eventually Heinrich who admitted that he was 'a braggart and a bluffer,' made the discovery sound as if it were his alone." [pg. 35.]
Had this book or one similar to it, accompanied my forced reading in middle school of The Illiad, it may have been less an ordeal. Teachers, think about including interesting extra reading material when having your students read The Illiad (and the like), lest you loose them!
Graverobber mentality, scary man, scary book!
Humor and Humanity
Customer Rating: Schliemann, Laura Schlitz notes wryly, had "lie" in the middle of his name. With wit and feeling, she brings to life his entertaining true adventures--and his entertaining lies. He is real, and very human: Brilliant. Arrogant. Maddening. Improbable. And very, very lucky. We get to see his triumphs and his flaws, to root for him and be appalled by him, to enjoy his life and be saddened by his death.
This is for children with an interest in archaeology, history, Greek mythology--or just a great story. It is so well told that it may spark new interests: It tells a bit about Homer, the Illiad, and the Odyssey; it contains an easy, amusing explanation of "stratification"--the layers that archaeologists must dig through, and the history contained in each; and there are notes on the bibliography to guide readers who want to know more.
Robert Byrd's fanciful illustrations capture the grandeur and humor perfectly.
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