Christopher Hitchens Critical Essay | Critical Review by Noel Malcolm

Critical Review by Noel Malcolm

SOURCE: Malcolm, Noel. “Sacrilege in the Temple of Clio.” Spectator (1 August 1987): 32–33.

In the following review, Malcolm offers a negative assessment of The Elgin Marbles.

In the stamping-grounds of historical controversy, it is always a pleasure to come across a book which investigates impartially a wide range of evidence and draws its conclusions without bias or prejudice. So I recommend William St Clair's Lord Elgin and the Marbles (Oxford, 1967). Christopher Hitchens has, I fancy, also read St Clair's book, but I can find no mention of the fact [in The Elgin Marbles] among his acknowledgements, where numerous Greek officials are thanked for their help. Here is St Clair's description of the state of the Acropolis under Turkish rule in 1800:

The Erechtheum was a gunpowder magazine, the Theseum was a church, the Tower of the Winds was the headquarters of the Whirling Dervishes, and the Monument of...
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