Pilate: The Diary of an Invented Man - Softcover

Wroe, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099287935 ISBN 13: 9780099287933

Publisher: Vintage, 2000

Synopsis

Although very little is known for certain about Pontius Pilate, the man who crucified Christ, this has not stopped writers in every age from imagining his life. In this extraordinary book, Ann Wroe recounts the lives of all our Pilates; among them the glittering medieval tyrant, devoted to gambling and getting around the law, and the wriggling modern pragmatist, whose dilemma over Jesus has been described by Tony Blair as 'a timeless parable of political life'. This is also the story of the man Pilate might have been; and the man who mirrors us. Ann Wroe shows how, in his struggles with fate and free will, Pilate's story has also become the story of ourselves.

About this title

Review

As one of the most remembered and controversial minor characters from the best-selling book of all time, Pontius Pilate makes an intriguing subject for a book of his own. His own ambivalent role in the drama leading up to the crucifixion, and his actions afterwards, have made him a character of great fascination over the centuries. He is not an easy man to pin down though and is, therefore, not an immediately obvious candidate for a biography. However this isn't strictly speaking your typical biographical work. Pilate the man has become far more over the centuries since his destiny briefly and fatefully met that of Jesus of Nazareth--far more; a symbol, a portmanteau character, a name rich in meaning and filled with a subtle ambiguity that reaches to the essence of people's souls.

The Bible says very little about him and accounts from the Gospels of events leading up to the crucifixion are inconsistent. According to St John, Pilate and Jesus entered into a serious discussion about the nature of God's kingdom before Pilate, finding no fault with Jesus, offered the Jewish crowd the opportunity of having "their King" released. They chose instead to free Barabbas, a robber and a murderer, and Pilate, no doubt mindful of the precarious political minefield he was navigating, ceded to their yobbish preference. Whether he ever really had a choice or was simply a pawn fulfilling his role is an unanswerable question that reaches to the very heart of the Christian religion. Anne Wroe has researched this study of an elusive man thoroughly and come up with an engaging book that explores every aspect of the man that can be discerned from the historical record, together with the layers of myth and legend, interpretation and judgement that have been laid down on top for the 2,000 years since. --Alisdair Bowles

Review

"The touch of a master novelist... Few have ever explored so imaginatively, or with such passionate attention to detail'" (Sunday Telegraph)

"Because so little is known, it is possible to speculate endlessly. If one's mind is a brilliant engine of speculation like Wroe's, then one is dazzlingly equipped to do so. Her book is excellent and discloses an intense imaginative sympathy, a lyricism, and a fine-tuned psychological perception" (Daily Express)

"Wroe is a creative, even a beautiful writer... It is a wonderfully enjoyable, rich, generous book" (A.N.Wilson Daily Mail)

"Extraordinary and compelling" (Victoria Glendinning Daily Telegraph)

"She manages always to keep Pilate living and breathing in the text, and occasionally kicking and screaming" (Independent on Sunday)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0099287935
• ISBN 13: 9780099287933
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416