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Mary Renault

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Daniel Mendelsohn on his correspondence with the novelist Mary Renault - The New Yorker
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Mary Renault


Born
in London, England, The United Kingdom
September 04, 1905

Died
December 13, 1983

Genre
Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction


Mary Renault was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece. In addition to vivid fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato and Alexander the Great, she wrote a non-fiction biography of Alexander.

Her historical novels are all set in ancient Greece. They include a pair of novels about the mythological hero Theseus and a trilogy about the career of Alexander the Great. In a sense, The Charioteer (1953), the story of two young gay servicemen in the 1940s who try to model their relationship on the ideals expressed in Plato's Phaedrus and Symposium, is a warm-up for Renault's historical novels. By turning away from the 20th century and focusing on stories about male lovers in the warrior societies of anci ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.05 · 60,838 ratings · 5,594 reviews · 27 distinct works • Similar authors
The Persian Boy (Alexander ...
4.18 avg rating — 11,247 ratings — published 1972 — 3 editions
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The King Must Die (Theseus,...
3.97 avg rating — 10,426 ratings — published 1958 — 147 editions
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Fire from Heaven (Alexander...
3.96 avg rating — 10,354 ratings — published 1969 — 64 editions
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The Charioteer
4.11 avg rating — 6,602 ratings — published 1953 — 76 editions
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The Last of the Wine
4.04 avg rating — 6,535 ratings — published 1956 — 13 editions
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The Bull from the Sea (Thes...
4.09 avg rating — 4,278 ratings — published 1962 — 104 editions
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Funeral Games (Alexander th...
4.04 avg rating — 3,594 ratings — published 1981 — 6 editions
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The Mask of Apollo
4.06 avg rating — 2,624 ratings — published 1966 — 78 editions
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The Praise Singer
3.97 avg rating — 1,621 ratings — published 1978 — 34 editions
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The Nature of Alexander
4.16 avg rating — 1,503 ratings — published 1975 — 52 editions
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More books by Mary Renault…

Series by Mary Renault

Fire from Heaven The Persian Boy Funeral Games
(3 books)
by
4.08 avg rating — 25,903 ratings

The King Must Die The Bull from the Sea
(2 books)
by
4.01 avg rating — 15,025 ratings

Quotes by Mary Renault  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy
tags: alexander-the-great, mary-renault, the-persian-boy
2239 likes
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“True friends share everything, except the past before they met.”
― mary renault, Fire from Heaven
1210 likes
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“There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare.”
― Mary Renault, The Charioteer
tags: shock, truth, unexpected
114 likes
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Polls

Which book would you like to read for our April 1 - May 1 History group read?

 
  16 votes, 50.0%

 
  5 votes, 15.6%

 
  4 votes, 12.5%

 
  3 votes, 9.4%

 
  3 votes, 9.4%

 
  1 vote, 3.1%

32 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Fall Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread) 2785 1209 Nov 30, 2010 09:03PM  
The World's Liter...: Future Readings after Greece 20 84 Nov 30, 2010 09:36PM  
Historical Fictio...: Challenge #5: January 1st - February 28th 300 209 Mar 16, 2011 08:15AM