Book Review: “The Life of Alexander the Great” by Plutarch

I recently finished reading The Life of Alexander the Great by Plutarch. I read the John Dryden translation, which was from the 17th century, so even though the book was 72 pages long I took my time reading it because of the older form of English which isn’t as easy to comprehend as 21st century English.

The Life of Alexander the Great is a classic that covers the major events of Alexander the Great’s life, and gives readers an insight to the personality of this great historical figure who conquered much of the known world (known to the Ancient Greeks) while he was still in his 20s.

Though it is a comprehensive biography in that it gives readers all the significant points and events of Alexander’s life, it is not a detailed one as it rarely describes events in more than a few sentences or paragraphs. This may be attractive to readers who like short books that they can finish in a day, but less so for those who desire much more detail.

The biography also assumes that the reader has some prior knowledge to Alexander the Great and the customs and history of Ancient Greece, Macedon, and Persia, as it does not provide much background information on what would be considered common knowledge in the time of Plutarch, who lived in the first century AD in the Roman Empire. This was not a problem for me…