Alexandre le Grand by Gustave Droysen

This specific book, Alexandre le Grand by Gustave Droysen (ISBN 2-87027-077-1), is not much known among the admirers of Alexander the Great and certainly not to the English speaking public.

As a native of Treptow, now part of Poland, Gustave Droysen wrote his book in 1833 in German but we had to wait a full century to find it translated into French. The translator is Jacques-Méchin, who later wrote a history of Alexander of his own, no doubt inspired by Droysen.  My edition dates from 1981 and has respected the author’s original style as much as possible.

The German text is written in one piece, meaning that it has no chapters or points of reference. For the reader’s comfort, Jacques-Méchin has divided the book into Four Books in his translation.

It is clear that Droysen’s history does not include historical and archaeological discoveries made since 1833, especially in countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Mesopotamia in general. He rather faithfully follows ancient historians like Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch and Curtius, without imposing his own views or opinions on us. His history is coherent and reads like a novel rather than a historical account.

In Droysen’s day, this book was taken in high esteem but with today’s reader it obviously will fall short because of the new developments that occurred over the past two hundred years. Besides, we have to consider his perception of the world against the events of his days when Napoleon had put archaeology on the map during his campaign in Egypt, which in turn triggered later explorations of Greece and Anatolia by men like H. Schliemann, C. Fellows, T.A.B. Spratt and J. Burckhardt to name just a few. In any case, the book certainly makes a good read.