Language English Publication date 1934 Pages 949 Originally published 1934 Page count 949 | Series Tros Media type Print (Hardback) OCLC 592466 Genre Fantasy Fiction Country United States of America | |
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Tros of Samothrace is an historical novel with fantasy elements by author Talbot Mundy. It was published in 1934 by Appleton-Century. The novel was constructed of novellas which first appeared in the magazine Adventure in 1925-1926.
Contents
Mundy dedicated Tros of Samothrace to his friend Rose Wilder Lane, who had supported its book publication.
Plot introduction
The novel concerns the swashbuckling adventures of the title character as he battles Norsemen, pre-Roman Britons and Julius Caesar.
Publishing history
The original sequence of novellas appeared as follows:
When Tros of Samothrace was published in four paperback volumes in 1967 and 1971, the breaks between volumes coincided with Mundy's own breaks between episodes:
When Tros of Samothrace was reissued in three paperback volumes in 1976, the breaks between volumes came partway through "Prisoners of War" and "Admiral of Caesar's Fleet".
Reception
Although the stories were popular with Adventure's readers, they also aroused fierce debate due to the fact that Mundy depicted Julius Caesar and Roman civilization as imperialistic and tyrannical; Adventure editor Arthur Sullivant Hoffman later stated that the Tros stories were the most controversial the magazine had ever published. Mundy's negative depiction of Caesar resulted in a historical debate about the ruler in Adventure's letters section, "the Camp-Fire".
Fritz Leiber praised Tros of Samothrace, saying: "The Tros stories made a great impression on me as a young man. I read and re-read them...it was wonderful, imaginative writing". Floyd C. Gale wrote in 1959 when reviewing a new edition of the book that it was "Out of print far too long, here is one classic that still reads as if written yesterday ... An absolute Must Buy at this price".