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Review
“Not since Robert Graves’ I, Claudius" "has there been such an exciting, living image of the ancient world on this grand a scale.” -- "The New York Times Book Review"
Book Description
Stunningly detailed, thrillingly plotted, and filled with characters who live and breathe on the page, The Last of the Wine is a masterpiece of the art of historical fiction from one of its greatest practitioners.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format: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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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A model for historical novelists
In the slew of wordier, more hyped fiction about the classical world that is engulfing us at the moment, I hope some readers are prompted to go back to Mary Renault. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2009 by Caroline Galwey
Among my most valuable reading ever.
I came across this paperback when I was 15 and keep it still, 45 years later. It has to be possibly the most informative and thought-provoking work I've ever come across. Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2008 by M.I.
Read it, all aspiring historical novelists, and take note
In the slew of wordier, more hyped fiction about the classical world that is engulfing us at the moment, I hope some readers are prompted to go back to Mary Renault. Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2007 by Caroline Galwey
Brilliant
She is a wonderful author, and if anyone is interested in ancient Greek history there is no better way to imagine what life must have been like, but through the eyes of Mary... Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2000
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