Marius the Epicurean
Set in Rome during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Walter Pater’s 1885 novel traces the inner life of a thoughtful young patrician searching for a philosophy worth living by. Marius moves from the old household religion of his childhood through Epicurean pleasure and Stoic discipline, testing each against experience and finding each incomplete, until he brushes against the strange, austere hope of the early Christians. There is little conventional plot; the drama is entirely one of ideas and sensibility. Pater, the leading voice of English aestheticism, uses the story to work out his own convictions about beauty, impression, and the ethical weight of how we choose to perceive the world. It is a demanding, deeply contemplative book. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.
