- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; New Ed edition (8 Nov 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0375726810
- ISBN-13: 978-0375726811
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.4 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,809,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
In The Last of the Wine, two young Athenians, Alexias and Lysis, compete in the palaestra, journey to the Olympic games, fight in the wars against Sparta, and study under Socrates. As their relationship develops, Renault expertly conveys Greek culture, showing the impact of this supreme philosopher whose influence spans epochs.
About the Author
Mary Renault was educated at Clifton High School, Bristol and St Hugh's College, Oxford. Having completed nursing training in 1937, she then wrote her first novel Promise of Love. Her next three novels were written during off-time duty whilst serving in the war. In 1948 she went to live in South Africa but travelled widely. It was her trip to Greece and her visits to Corinth, Samos, Crete, Delos, Aegina and other islands, as well as to Athens, Sounion and Marathon, that resulted in her brilliant historical reconstructions of Ancient Greece. Mary Renault died in 1983. (20030723)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The human side of Thucydides,
By
This review is from: The Last Of The Wine (Paperback)
Renault takes Thucydides' magisterial account of the Peloponnesian War, the deadly conflict between Athens and Sparta in the second half of the 5th century bc, and shows us what it meant to the ordinary people growing up and coming of age in the middle of the war that lasted over 30 years and broke the power of classical Athens.
Her 'heroes' are young men who study under Socrates, fight against the Spartans and witness the struggles of Alcibiades and Lysander. If you've read Thucydides, this is a wonderful fictional complement, and if you haven't then if this doesn't make you want to, nothing will! Steeped in the cruelty, violence and beauty of ancient Greece, this is a beautifully written and subtle novel that really whisks you back 2,500 years so that you can experience the texture of life then for yourself. Brilliant.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Platonic ideal of a historical novel... perfection,
By
This review is from: The Last of the Wine (Paperback)
This is a book that dumps you squarely in the agora, the symposium, the trireme and the battlefield. There is not a single wasted syllable, not one sentence that rings false. Like a Mozart symphony, it is exactly right - the Platonic ideal of what a historical novel should be. Being set in the era of Imperial Athens, it naturally incorporates its own tragedy - more than one, in fact. Almost effortlessly, it leaves you understanding just why the Athenians behaved the way they did and how their arrogance led to disaster.Great historical figures spring from the pages, with all their faults and weaknesses as well as their magnificent virtues - Plato, Socrates, Alcibiades, Xenophon, Critias, and many others. Yet alongside the lucid rationality of Socrates, which rings true down the millennia, Alexias and his contemporaries inhabit a world of gods and demons. Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Athene and the Furies are just as real to them as the mountains and the sea.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Historical Novel,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Last of the Wine (Vintage) (Paperback)
Renault demonstrates a true understanding of the classical world and Greek culture (unlike many novelists, who demonstrate only a superficial understanding). In addition, the tale itself is gripping, and exceptionally well written.
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