SOURCE: A review of Fortune's Favorites, in World Literature Today, Vol. 68, Summer, 1994, p. 632.

In the following review, Richey offers high praise for Fortune's Favorites.

Fortune's Favorites is the third novel in Colleen McCullough's projected Roman series, focused on the world of Julius Caesar. Like the first two books, The First Man in Rome and The Grass Crown, the new work is a joy to read both for its marvelous narrative and for its presentation of truly extraordinary details, including maps and illustrations drawn by the author. Furthermore, McCullough incorporates extensively researched information into her story, such as women's use of cork-soled shoes to keep their feet dry, family relationships through generations of marriages and births, et cetera.

What some readers may not know is that McCullough, whose fame in the past has rested largely on the romantic novel The Thorn Birds, is in fact a brilliant researcher who...