A dense and thorough biography of both a man and his time and place in history. I found the language and style more dry and academic than I hoped, but not inaccessible for the average reader.

Terrific popular history of one of history’s most interesting figures
Everett provides a compelling portrait of the Macedonian culture that produced Alexander and then launches into the decade long journey which finds Alexander conquering half the world
Anyone interested in history will enjoy this book

"Alexander the Great" by Anthony Everitt is a fascinating look at the life and times of one of history's greatest figures.

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<p>By this point, I've read numerous biographies of Alexander the Great. Some, such as Mary Renault's <em>The Nature of Alexander </em>are quite hagiographical, while more recent offerings from classicists such as Paul Cartledge and Robin Lane Fox take a more balanced view. Anthony Everitt's new book, <em>Alexander the Great: His Life and Mysterious</em> death falls mostly into the latter camp. While on the whole he is fairly complimentary of the Macedonian king and conqueror, he doesn't shy away from pointing out of some of his significant shortcomings. </p>
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<p>Everitt documents Alexander's life from beginning to end, from his youth in the unruly court of his father Philip to his final days in Babylon. We see him in battle (frequently), and in love (less frequently). We learn of his tempestuous relationships with both his mother Olympias and his father Philip, as well as the many men that surrounded him (and a few of the women).</p>
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<p>As was the case with Everitt's last book on the history of Athens, there were several times when I felt myself growing bored. Part of this is his style, which tends to be very unimaginative and dry, and part of this has to do with how he organizes his narrative. There are times when the book seems like little more than a recitation of the events of Alexander's life, with only slight glimpses into the more personal aspects. </p>
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<p>What he lacks in stylistic grace, Everitt makes up for in rigour and detail. He provides voluminous (some might say exhausting detail) of the various battles that Alexander waged in his attempts to bring the world under his dominion. Everitt argues that Alexander was driven by <em>pothos,</em> a desire to attain the unattainable, and that this was what accounted for his seemingly never-ending desire to embark on the next battle, the next voyage to the unknown.</p>
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<p>On the whole, Everitt argues that Alexander deserves the appellation "the Great." This was a man, after all, who radically reshaped the Mediterranean world, with consequences that would extend far into the future. At the same time, he doesn't gloss over those instances when Alexander's behavior was truly terrifying (and terrible), those times when he allowed his anger to get the better of him and committed acts of truly terrible barbarity and atrociousness. </p>
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<p>My greatest complaints with the book are twofold. As I alluded to earlier, Everitt doesn't really pay very much attention to Alexander's personal life. While he is fairly upfront about the fact that Alexander almost certainly had a sexual relationship with Hephaistion and, later, with the eunuch Bagoas, there's no real sense of what these men meant to Alexander emotionally. Everitt argues that his avoidance of this subject stems from the sources, and though that's a fair point as far as it goes, it ensures that Alexander remains something of an enigma, forever hovering just beyond view.</p>
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<p>My more significant complaint about this book is how little I felt I learned from it. There were very few revelations in Everitt's biography that I hadn't encountered before, and while this isn't a deal-breaker as far as my enjoyment of the book goes, it does make me wonder why, exactly, we needed another biography of one of the world's most famous figures. For that matter, I'm not exactly sure why the title makes such a point of mentioning his death, since Everitt clears up the "mystery" fairly quickly, positing (reasonably) that it was probably due to malaria rather than a sinister act of poisoning. </p>
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<p>To my mind, one of the most poignant parts of the book comes at the very end. Everitt reminds us that, though we have a fairly copious amount of material from the ancient world dealing with Alexander's life, there is very little about the Persians that he conquered. Almost the only direct access we have to the Achaemenid dynasty is from the Greek perspective, and Everitt forces us to wonder exactly how our perspective on Alexander might have been very different had we had more from the Persian point of view. </p>
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<p>All in all, this is a very serviceable biography of one of the ancient world's most famous conquerors. Those looking for a no-frills exploration of his life will find that here, while those looking for more original takes would probably do better to look elsewhere.</p>
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Alexander the Great is a well researched book and we'll written. This is a fascinating subject and the author did a great job.