THE MACEDONIAN By Mary Butts This brief and compressed study
of Alexander the Great (The Macedonian, Heinemann, 6s.) is _more satisfying than many more comprehensive and detailed portraits of its subject, The legend of Alexander (if -it is permissible to use the term for that which receives historic sanction) was
started before his birth. Macedon had reached a significant point in her affairs. Throughout that decade the interest on Philip's diplomacy had been accumulating ; while military success had brought the kingdom over which he reigned within striking-distance of the headship of the Greek states. The idea of Greek unity was in the ascendant in Macedon, focussed against the Imperial monster of Persia. The birth of a son to Philip and Olympias was consequently awaited with an eagerness that attended as much a symbol as an event. To his parents, the symbols were different : their characters were complementary ; Philip, practical in affairs and hard- headed, a rationalist and unsensitive, already outlining in anticipation the career of a son who would be born in his absence to complete the neat pattern of his own achievement Olympias, passionate and irresponsible, surrounding herself with all the paraphernalia a superstition, and gaining, as the time of her delivery drew nearer, a troubled buoyancy from the knowledge of her son's divinity. This divergence in the anticipations of his parents was mirrored in Alexander's life : his. life indeed, as Miss Butts describes it, was the logical conclusion to their wishes. The current of his ambition for a unity throughout the world, which would supersede the petty conception-of the city states, was deflected by his other personal ambition which resulted in the assumption of divinity. The letter, which Miss Butts presents, from Callisthenes to Aristotle describing the events which led up to this conclusion, is a masterpiece of indirect narrative. Throughout the book Miss Butts does not describe events directly, so much as their reflections in the minds of her characters. Her narra- tive, presented in a series of brief, episodic sketches, and charged with dramatic tension,. has the force of a swiftly moving film, the cumulative effect of which is weakened by one historically unavoidable but fundamental defect : the climax of Alexander's life was not his death, but his assump- tion of divinity ; after this, owing to the convention of the author's narrative method, subsequent events represent a descent from climax. Apart from this, the b6ok achieves all the virtues of its ambition. Miss Butts' subtle and excellent prose is the perfect vehicle for the communication of her thought. It is a pleasure as well as an object lesson to read.
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