What would it have been like to sit at the feet of the legendary
philosopher Aristotle? Even more intriguing, what would it have
been like to witness Aristotle instructing the most famous of his
pupils, the young Alexander the Great?
In her first novel, acclaimed fiction writer Annabel Lyon boldly
imagines one of history's most intriguing relationships and the war
at its heart between ideas and action as a way of knowing the
world.
As The Golden Mean opens, Aristotle is forced to postpone his
dream of succeeding Plato as the leader of the Academy in Athens
when Philip of Macedon asks him to stay on in his capital city of
Pella to tutor his precocious son, Alexander. At first the
philosopher is appalled to be stuck in the brutal backwater of his
childhood, but he is soon drawn to the boy's intellectual potential
and his capacity for surprise. What he does not know is whether his
ideas are any match for the warrior culture that is Alexander's
birthright.
But he feels that teaching this startling, charming, sometimes
horrifying boy is a desperate necessity. And that what the boy --
thrown before his time onto his father's battlefields -- needs most
is to learn the golden mean, that elusive balance between extremes
that Aristotle hopes will mitigate the boy's will to conquer.
Also at stake are his own ambitions, as he plays a cat-and-mouse
game of power and influence with Philip, a boyhood friend who now
controls his fate.
Exploring a fabled time and place, Annabel Lyon tells her story,
breathtakingly, in the earthy, frank, and perceptive voice of
Aristotle himself. With sensual and muscular prose, she explores
how Aristotle's genius touched the boy who would conquer the known
world. And she reveals how we still live with the ghosts of both
men.
"From the Hardcover edition."