As the back cover reads, "the Elgin Marbles have been displayed in the British Museum for nearly two hundred years, and for just as long they have been the center of a raging controversy. In Stealing Athena, Karen Essex chronicles the Marbles' amazing journey through the dynamic narratives of Mary Nisbet, wife of the Earl of Elgin, the British ambassador to Constantinople, and Aspasia, the mistress of Perikles, the most powerful man in Athens during that city's Golden Age."
Focus on the Women
With such lush subject matter as the backdrop in Essex's novel, she takes the novel one step further with her creativity by focusing not on the man, Lord Elgin, who is famous for bringing the Elgin Marbles to England, but instead, she focuses on the women of the period who were often exploited and ruined at the hands of the men they aligned themselves with. It is with Mary Nisbet that Essex opens her novel – as a 21-year-old pregnant newly wed with proverbial rose colored glasses. Essex chronicles Nisbet's journey through bearing her controlling and neglectful husband five children while uncovering his underhanded dealings in what could be considered an early society of dealings in illicit antiquities.
Uncovering the Elgin Marbles Through Personal History
Mary Nisbet's story and that of the Marbles comes into full swing when she finally leaves her husband and takes up with a fellow Scot Robert Ferguson, a powerful Englishman, who stays by her side during her very public and scandalous divorce trial. It is here that Essex juxtaposes the "present day" story with the sexual promiscuity of Aspasia, the courtesan lover of the great Pericles and the inspiration for the Parthenon's Athena. What is created is a strong tapestry of blending art with history and the turmoil that life choices cause – themes that are ever present in many of Karen Essex' novels such as Leonardo's Swans.
Strength in Essex's Research
What is most inspiring in Stealing Athena, is Essex's research on the subject matter. Her ability to weave historical fact with her creative fiction is flawless. Readers will walk away from the text feeling statisfied in knowing what caused the Elgin Marbles to be removed from Greece. Though, it is clear that these artifacts do not belong in England, it is more so evident that had Lord Elgin not removed them from Athens, the marble would have been lost as it would have been used for building materials or destroyed by Napoleon during the war.
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex is available for purchase through Anchor Publishers with ISBN 0767926188.
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