Creation : a novel : restored edition

Once again the incomparable Gore Vidal interprets and animates history -- this time in a panoramic tour of the 5th century B.C. -- and embellishes it with his own ironic humor, brilliant insights, and piercing observations. We meet a vast array of historical figures in a staggering novel of love, war, philosophy, and adventure . . . "There isn't a page of CREATION that doesn't inform and very few pages that do not delight."-- John Leonard, The New York TimesFrom the Paperback edition. "The hero-narrator, Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster, is brought up in a fifth-century B.C. Persian court and educated with his closest friend, Xerxes, who is destined to become master of the empire that stretches from India to the Mediterranean. As an ambassador for Xerxes, Cyrus embarks on journeys far beyond the boundaries of the known world, seeking wealth and trade routes.". "Creation witnesses a blind and aged Cyrus relating to his grandson the tales of his astonishing travels and encounters. On his extensive missions to Cathay and India, Cyrus seeks not only riches and political gains for his monarch but also the answers to the questions that dominate his life: How was the universe created, and why was evil created along with good? His quest brings him to the park in India to which the Buddha has retreated, to the riverbank in Cathay where he fished with Confucius, and finally to the shaded courtyard in Athens where a young stonemason named Socrates comes to repair his wall, and where Cyrus will live the last days of his life. And in this restored edition of Creation readers will find material, left out of the original edition, that further elaborates on the lineages of the major figures in the book - most notably the kings Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes - and the conspiracy, duplicity, and intrigue that surround their ascent to power, as well as an expanded account of the Battle of Sardis."--BOOK JACKET. Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster and lifelong friend of Xerxes, spent most of his life as Persian ambassador for the great king Darius. He traveled to India, where he discussed nirvana with Buddha, and to the warring states of Cathay, where he learned of Tao from Master Li and fished on the riverbank with Confucius. Now blind and aged in Athens -- the Athens of Pericles, Sophocles, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Socrates -- Cyrus recounts his days as he strives to resolve the fundamental questions that have guided his life's journeys: how the universe was created, and why evil was created with good. In revisiting the fifth century b.c. -- one of the most spectacular periods in history -- Gore Vidal illuminates the ideas that have shaped civilizations for millennia Cyrus, a fifth century Persian, relates the story of his travels and encounters as an ambassador.