Asterix and the Roman Agent was published in 1970.
I felt this Asterix’s book had a bit more text than usual. There’s lots of reading in this one!
The story starts with Caesar being teased by Senator Stradivarius in the Roman senate about how he can’t occupy all of Gaul because of one village which we all know so well.
Caesar wants to show them “who’s boss” by taking care of these Gauls but what else can he possibly do. During a meeting with politicians (including Brutus), one person recommends sending a particular person by the name of Tortuous Convolvulus. This tiny man is capable of stirring up trouble within any group of people.
Tortuous Convolvulus is sent to Gaul and immediately gets down to business. He enters the village of Asterix and present a gorgeous vase to the most important man in the village... which he decides is Asterix. Chief Vitalstatistix is obviously insulted thinking that he is the “most important man in the village” and this all starts the rumors. For the next thirty pages, the rumors fly left and right in the village. Eventually, the villagers believe that Asterix is plotting against them all and that he has given the secret of the magic potion to the Romans... will the village come to an end in this story?
As I mentioned above, this story is text-heavy and isn’t probably the best Asterix story to buy for children. Younger children probably won’t understand the humor in this story quite as well as adults since we’ve all witnessed lots of gossip and rumors in our time. Would children understand the opening section with Caesar in the senate? Also, half way through the story there’s one box with a “hypothetical” situation which might confuse young readers -- I remember it confusing me when I first read the story in my childhood.
This story has its good parts... and it’s a good variation from the usual “adventure” story. I particularly like the climax which uses a one page “helicopter” point of view of the village.
Towards the end, the druid Getafix mentions that the villagers are “impractical... eccentric.. but you have to like them. They’re only human.” I was a bit surprised by this “sociological” observation...
Well, maybe there’s some truth to what Getafix is saying and the story ends with a message of what humans are really like. So many of us live our lives through gossip and other people’s lives... word gets around quickly and stories get manipulated... I can’t think of any other species on this planet that does this kind of behavior. I guess we’re only human...
