The Hidden Historian
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
By day he composes the official history of the Empire in solemn prose laced with purple. By night, dunking his pen in bile, he scribbles out the true record. The official account brims with pomp: public works galore, military victories and triumphal arches, the elaboration of a vast code of law. The hidden history details all the sordid exploits behind palace walls: orgies, murders, appalling torture sessions. For an unknown number of years, the historian pursues this schizophrenic career, tearing down in secret what he exalts in public. He knows that if the work is seen by the emperor or empress, he will die a miserable, slow death. What prompts him to persist in writing this secret book which he himself will never see published?
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