{"product_id":"9781590179666","title":"The Glory of the Empire: A Novel, a History","description":"\u003ci\u003eThe Glory of the Empire\u003c\/i\u003e is the rich and absorbing history of an  extraordinary empire, at one point a rival to Rome. Rulers such as  Basil the Great of Onessa, who founded the Empire but whose treacherous  ways made him a byword for infamy, and the romantic Alexis the bastard,  who dallied in the fleshpots of Egypt, studied Taoism and Buddhism,  returned to save the Empire from civil war, and then retired “to learn  to die,” come alive in \u003ci\u003eThe Glory of the Empire\u003c\/i\u003e, along with  generals, politicians, prophets, scoundrels, and others. Jean d’Ormesson  also goes into the daily life of the Empire, its popular customs, and  its contribution to the arts and the sciences, which, as he  demonstrates, exercised an influence on the world as a whole, from the  East to the West, and whose repercussions are still felt today. But it  is all fiction, a thought experiment worthy of Jorge Luis Borges, and in  the end \u003ci\u003eThe Glory of the Empire\u003c\/i\u003e emerges as a great shimmering  mirage, filling us with wonder even as it makes us wonder at the  fugitive nature of power and the meaning of history itself.","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47183987114224,"sku":"9781590179666","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781590179666_p0.jpg?v=1763806790","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781590179666","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}