Mary Renault

“This may be up there in my top three novels of all time…It’s told from the point of view of a young boy who is only 16 years old. He’s called Bagoas. He is a courtesan in the Persian court, to King Darius, the hugely powerful leader of the Persian empire at the time. Alexander conquers that great empire and takes Baghdad. Bagoas is now in the hands of the invading army…To use Bagoas as her central character is brilliant because he’s an outsider. Outsider narrators are a wonderful way to bring you, the reader, into the story because they are discovering it on your behalf. He’s been used and abused since he was just a boy. He was sold as a slave. He was castrated. It’s so visceral and so grim. You’re deeply invested in him as a character. You want him to be okay. You want him to be looked after. You don’t want him to have to go through any more grim times. He has considerable antipathy for these people when they first turn up, because he’s been inculcated in the court, but after a while, like the rest of us, he is won over by Alexander’s charisma. You fall in love with Alexander through Bagoas. To write charismatic characters is a really hard thing to do, but my God, she’s good at it. You absolutely feel that Alexander the Great is that incredible, young, charismatic leader that he clearly was. The heartstrings are so pulled when Bagoas falls in love with him…You get all that amazing, epic scenery, and events, and visceral violence, and then you get all the tender stuff as well. It’s a masterpiece of historical fiction.” Read more...

Historical Fiction Set Around the World

Jane Johnson, Historical Novelist

Published in 1956, Renault’s first novel, set in Ancient Greece, was the second of her works to feature male homosexuality as a major theme and became a bestseller among the gay community. Set during the Peloponnesian War, Alexias, a young Athenian from a good family, finds himself in a new adult world where his power and status are undermined by the forces of war. He soon finds himself drawn to the controversial teachings of Socrates. Among Socrates’ followers is Lysis; the two young men form an intimate bond. Renault expertly depicts the intricacies of the Ancient Greek world, conveying the impact of famine and conflict.

From our article Books like The Song of Achilles

“There are quite a lot of novels about Alexander and I think that, of them all, Mary Renault’s is the most readable and the most entertaining. It’s the first of what’s called the Alexander Trilogy, although it’s a slightly odd trilogy and the third volume, Funeral Games takes place after Alexander’s death. Mary Renault really knew her sources. She really understands the material. She has another particular interest and that’s in homosexuality. So, both in Fire from Heaven and in the second volume The Persian Boy, there’s quite a lot of focus on Alexander and male lovers.” Read more...

The best books on Alexander the Great

Hugh Bowden, Historian