Mary Renault books WAS: Re: Sex! Love! Writing!

[juli17 at aol.com]

> Alla:
> 
> I will always love Fire from heaven the  best - my heart wanted 
> Alexander with Hepastion ( can never spell his  name correctly) and 
> not with anybody else.
> 
> I also  loved Last drop of vine ( read it in Russian) so much.
> 
> She  writes beatifully - language in Charioteer is so melodical, 
like 
> a  poetry, even if it is not set in ancient Greece, although 
obviously 
>  some allusions to mythology are made.
> 
> If you have not read it,  highly recommend.
> 
> Hmmm. I do not think I read Praise singer,  unless the russian name 
is 
> very different, what is it  about?
>


Susan:
In English, The Last of the Wine......

Praise Singer is  about the lyric poets. It's about a very ugly boy 
who grew up with a great  gift for music and became one of the most 
famous lyric poets (Simonides). It  focuses on the period in Ancient 
Greece before Pericles -- when Pistratos  was the leader in Athens...

Lots of lovely stuff about memorizing  Homer......

I do also love the Persian Boy. The part where Bagoas ( says  about 
Alexander..)
"All I taught him that night, he thought that by some  happy harmony 
of our souls, we were discovering together. So indeed, it  seemed at 
least even to me."

Julie:
The Persian Boy is my other  favorite, though I love Fire from Heaven
too. And I've always loved rereading the Theseus books, The King Must
Die and Bull from the Sea. I find my collection of Mary Renault  novels
amusing, since they range from a used 1953 Giant Cardinal edition of
Bull from the Sea, to a hardback 1978 Pantheon edition of The Praise
Singer to the 1982 Pinnacle edition of Funeral Games (her last novel,
and not one of my favorites given the story's dark nature--the fight  over
Alexander's empire after his death which led to a number of  murders
in the struggle for power, not the least of which were the  murders of
his two young sons). It's a hodgepodge collection, to say the least!
 
Julie 







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