Marius the Epicurean

By Walter Pater

Book Overview

Marius the Epicurean (1885) by Walter Pater is a philosophical and semi-autobiographical novel set in the Roman Empire during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. It follows the intellectual and spiritual journey of Marius, a sensitive and thoughtful young Roman who seeks meaning in life through art, philosophy, and religion.

Initially drawn to Epicureanism, Marius pursues beauty and personal serenity as guiding principles. However, he becomes increasingly disillusioned with its limitations. Over time, he explores Stoicism, Platonism, and early Christianity, all while observing the decline of pagan Rome and the stirrings of a new spiritual world.

The novel is less about plot and more about inner transformation-a meditation on how one might live a good and beautiful life. Ultimately, Marius does not convert to Christianity but comes to admire its ideals, dying quietly in pursuit of a moral, reflective, and compassionate life.

Pater's richly aesthetic style and emphasis on sensibility, moral choice, and the soul's development make this a landmark work in English Decadent literature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FJYNXJX9
• ISBN13: 9798897185443
• Release Date: July 2025
• Publisher: Lushena Books
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Stupor mundi

Why does no one read Pater these days? He writes with the fervid delicate beauty of a butterfly defying the storms of winter. As literature becomes ever more commercialised, this sensual celebration seems even more important. A pleasure every bit as sensual and refreshing as a Turkish bath.

Beautiful

Pater was one of the most insightful and exacting critics of England, and his fiction exceeded even his own standards for beauty. Marius the Epicurean is the story of a young man's spiritual and aesthetic awakening in ancient Rome. He journeys from Stoicism to Cyrenaicism to Epicureanism, and finally to Christianity. The book is subtle and profound, and is written in Pater's characteristically lovely prose. I do not recommend this book to anyone who wants a traditional linear plot in which the protagonist is motivated by external events; rather, I recommend it to all who wish "to burn with a hard, gemlike flame," to all who make careful aesthetic contemplation their highest goal.