Country United Kingdom Publication date 1956 Publisher Faber and Faber | Language English Originally published 1956 Genre Novella | |
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Similar Works by William Golding, Other books | ||
Envoy Extraordinary is a 1956 novella by William Golding, published along with Clonk Clonk and The Scorpion God in the collection The Scorpion God.
Envoy Extraordinary is set in Ancient Rome, in and around the Emperor's court. The aged Emperor lives with his favourite grandson, the seventeen-year-old Mamillius. The true heir, Posthumus, is governor of a distant province, but is jealous of Mamillius.
The normal Roman world is shattered by the arrival of the inventor, Phanocles. He brings many inventions that are far ahead of his time, including the pressure cooker, steam engines and explosives.
However', the emperor realises that these inventions will destabilize the empire. At the end of the book, the emperor sends Phanocles away to be the ambassador to China. It can be concluded that this is why China, and not Rome, invented these wonderful things some time later.