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The Lusiads
The Lusiads
Nov 16, 2025 12:30 AM

Author:Luis Vaz de Camões,William Atkinson

The Lusiads

First published in 1572, The Lusiads is one of the greatest epic poems of the Renaissance, immortalizing Portugal's voyages of discovery with an unrivalled freshness of observation.

At the centre of The Lusiads is Vasco da Gama's pioneer voyage via southern Africa to India in 1497-98. The first European artist to cross the equator, Camoes's narrative reflects the novelty and fascination of that original encounter with Africa, India and the Far East. The poem's twin symbols are the Cross and the Astrolabe, and its celebration of a turning point in mankind's knowledge of the world unites the old map of the heavens with the newly discovered terrain on earth. Yet it speaks powerfully, too, of the precariousness of power, and of the rise and decline of nationhood, threatened not only from without by enemies, but from within by loss of integrity and vision.

Reviews

I enjoyed the adventure enormously...Mallinson's descriptions of what it's like to be on campaign are as compelling, vivid and plausible as in any war novel I've ever read

—— Daily Telegraph

With this intelligent but pacy book, Brigadier Mallinson stays well on course to be regarded as the landlubbers' Patrick O'Brian'

—— Sunday Telegraph

Mallinson's shrewd handling of the issues of discipline and tactics, the responsibilities of junior and senior command, and the self-esteem of the cavalry, reflect both his own professional experience and excellent historical judgement'

—— The Times

Mallinson writes in beautiful almost Jane Austen-like English and his command of history, military detail, horse-mastership ... polymathic.

—— Country Life

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—— Bella

The author gets us to believe in her characters thereby making their ghastly dilemma seem all the more real. The result is a novel that, while staying just on the right side of sentimentality, is unafraid of dealing with strong emotions

—— Christina Koning , The Times

A nostalgic, compelling adventure laced with black humour

—— Time Out

A compulsively readable novel about the seductiveness of storytelling... Both his characters and the electrifying manner in which Scudamore writes about Ecuador demonstrate the appeal as well as the danger of any fabulist's capacity for wonder

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—— Sun

This is the perfect holiday read but would be just as entertainiing on the commute to work as accompanying you pool side

—— handbag.com

Second wives form a club to bitch about their husbands and in-laws in this compelling read

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—— YORKSHIRE POST

Beautifully written...Idiosyncratic and highly enjoyable

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—— SARAH BROADHURST , THE BOOKSELLER

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—— IRISH EXAMINER

Deliciously bittersweet...vividly evoked...an assured, ambitious and inventive work

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Brisk and wry intelligence...there is a constant wit and genuine sparkle of language at work here

—— SUNDAY TRIBUNE

Her reputation as a gifted novelist will be assured...Sweet Gum balances a visceral portrait of modern evil with an ambitious work on the themes of redemption, love and justice which is both refreshing and strangely nostalgic.

—— THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
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