Character Study

O.K. I have read a few fictional works about Alexander but none that really ever made me think very much about either the author or the subject.

I will use each of these characters to show how difficult it is to write a novel which is a best seller.

I will try to use each person to show what a character study would reveal.

Alexander: youth is precocious, bright, intelligent, self assertive, carefully schooled and trained, apprentice type relationship to father, nurtured and indoctrinated by mother.

displays initiative during a battle with his father when in charge of his own troops; thus, saved his father's life..was so highly regarded in that battle as to be recognized by his fellow soldiers as the king who would follow his father in succession..

impressed his father with his successful taming of a cantankerous horse who would not let anyone come near him...Alexander was so observant as to notice that the horse was nervous and afraid of shadows...so Alexander calmed him and turned him so that he could not see the shadow.

set out on his own accord to prove his manhood and ability to be a soldier through an experience with a neighboring tribe.

impressed Persians with types of questions he asked when only 12 years old as he wanted to know about roads, accessibility, and other information above and beyond the grasp of a typical 12 year old.

(my own recollection of his youth is simply the visit that Philip made to him after he had successfully tamed the horse which he named Bucephalus).

Louis XIV: youth reveals that he is a child carefully prepared to become the successor to his father when he is supposed to have given his name to his father as Louis XIV and his father is supposed to have told him not yet...His father would have to die before he could be considered the 14th King Louis of France.

Louis XIV as a child had to feign sleep while being exposed to the mob from Paris who entered his home and his room to be sure that he was there and had not been spirited out of town. This is said to have been the cause for the building of the chateau du Versailles at his father's famous hunting lodge.

Louis loved to play the drums, and often fought with his younger brother Philip.

Louis XIV has special tutors, and also serves in an apprenticetype relationship with Cardinal Mazarin who regularly works with him in learning who is who in the kingdom.

As a small child, a portrait of the young king is seen watching parliament in action while being ensconced in some type of cage like apparatus.

Louis appears to be quite precocious with his love affairs when quite young as he has many and several romances that are not very serious. He is said to have climbed rooftops and crawled into windows to spend an evening with a young lady.

Louis XIV had to spend time attending military procedures to learn the operations and routines of a regiment and military lifestyle. He came down ill at one of these and his life was seriously threatened giving great alarm to those who were determined that he would become the future king of France. He managed to survive the illness much to everyone's relief as nobody wanted Philip to ever be even thought of as a successor to the King.

(An incident I enjoyed remembering about Louis XIV is when he was riding a horse in a parade at age 13 I think as I believe it was his majority, and I recalled that I felt such joy and such a high in that experience unlike any other I have ever known, and that it was the child's joy at his being in this parade. I waved my chapeau to the crowd and looked left and right, noting what I could, and when my horse reared up into the air, I took a great intake of breath as it came as a surprise to me, as I am going up, up, up, and then I went on, to feel my thighs being sore.)

O.K. For now, that is all that I am going to discuss about each of these two potential subjects for a novel now, but it does illustrate all the things that an author has to consider about a subject that would make a story appealing to a reader.

The other problem is that I read most of this material years ago and as I do not have a lot of books around me right now and am not inclined to go look anything up, I am drawing upon a memory that is hazy at best. I know that Alexander had a mean type instructor who was selfish and stingy regarding pleasures for the young child...Alexander makes mention of it later when he is on his own and can prove his mentor wrong...one can see that Alexander did not really care for that particular instructor. His name was Leonidas of Epirus who is said to have searched Alexander's drawers to find any evidence of special treats which his mother may have left for him to have and enjoy. He criticized Alexander for using too much incense at one time. Another story on Alexander is that Philip, his father, criticized his singing voice when listening to him sing. Philip appears to be often very critical and harsh with his son.