The Emperor's Babe

Bernardine Evaristo’s tale of forbidden love in bustling third-century London is an intoxicating cocktail of poetry, history, and fiction. Feisty, precocious Zuleika, daughter of Sudanese immigrants-made-good and restless teenage bride of a rich Roman businessman, craves passion and excitement. When she begins an affair with the emperor, Septimius Severus, she knows her life will never be the same. Streetwise, seductive, and lyrical, with a lively, affecting heroine, The Emperor’s Babeis a strikingly imaginative historical novel-in-verse.

Bernardine Evaristo was born in London to a Nigerian father and an English mother. She trained as an actress and cofounded a theater company for which she wrote plays and acted. She has won numerous writing awards for prose and poetry, including the EMMA (Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards) Best Book Award for her novel Lara. She has held writing fellowships at the University of East Anglia and Barnard College.

Prologue	p. 3
Londinium Tour Guide (Unofficial)	p. 9
The Betrayal	p. 14
The Betrothal	p. 22
Osmosis	p. 24
Till Death Do Us	p. 27
Metamorphosis	p. 33
Two Hot Chicks	p. 35
Sisterfamilias (Relative Values)	p. 51
Zuleika and Her Girls	p. 55
Another World, Natale Solum (Native Soil)	p. 57
Primum Deterge Eam (Wipe It First)	p. 63
Capistrum Maritale (The Matrimonial Halter)	p. 67
Modus Vivendi (A Way of Living)	p. 69
Doesn't Time Fly When You're Having Fun	p. 72
Ab Asino Ianam (Wool from an Ass)	p. 76
Important Matters of State	p. 91
A Quiet Bedtime Voice	p. 107
Cumulonimbus (or, It's That Time of the Month Again)	p. 109
Zuleika Goes to the Theatre	p. 113
Obsession	p. 115
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus (While We Live, Let Us Live) or, Babe Talk	p. 117
Missing Pieces: A Perfect Match	p. 124
Venus Winks at Lovers' Games	p. 128
My Legionarius	p. 132
Post-coital Consciousness	p. 135
Post-coital Colloquium	p. 139
The Language of Love (I)	p. 151
The Language of Love (II)	p. 159
Amari Aliquid (Some Touch of Bitterness)	p. 160
Zuleika's Trip to the Amphitheatre	p. 163
Nulli Secundus (Second to None)	p. 170
Abyssus Abyssum (One Depravity Leads to Another)	p. 181
All the Evil of the World Let Loose	p. 184
Thus One May Go to the Stars	p. 187
Verbosa Orgia	p. 194
Dum Spiro, Spero (Where There's Life, There's Hope)	p. 202
Post-mortem	p. 210
Every Lover is a Soldier (Militat Omnis Amans)	p. 217
When You Least Expect	p. 233
Vale, Farewell, My Libyan	p. 234
Albatross	p. 235
The Language of Love (III)	p. 236
Animula Vagula (Little Soul Flitting Away)	p. 237
Domum Dulcie Domum (Home Sweet Home)	p. 238
Exit Stratagem	p. 240
The Price You Pay, My Beautiful Wife	p. 242
Vade in Pace (Go in Peace)	p. 243
Epilogue	p. 253
Acknowledgements	p. 255
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials