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Mary Renault
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The Last Of The Wine Paperback – 6 May 2004

by Mary Renault (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 802 ratings
Alexias, a young Athenian of good family, grows up just as the Peloponnesian War is drawing to a close. The adult world he enters is one in which the power and influence of his class have been undermined by the forces of war, and more and more Alexias finds himself drawn to the controversial teachings of Sokrates. Among the great thinker's followers Alexias meets Lysis, and the two youths become inseparable, wrestling together in the palaestra, journeying to the Olympic Games and fighting in the wars against Sparta. On the great historical canvas of famine, siege, and civil conflict, their relationship captures vividly the intricacies of classical Greek culture.
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  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Arrow
  4. Publication date
    6 May 2004
  5. Dimensions
    12.9 x 2.3 x 19.7 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0099463555
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0099463559
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Product description

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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Arrow
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 6 May 2004
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099463555
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099463559
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 308 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.3 x 19.7 cm
  • Best Sellers Rank: 1,168,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 802 ratings

About the author

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Mary Renault

Mary Renault

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Mary Renault (1905-1983) was best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece with their vivid fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato and Alexander the Great.

Born in London in 1905 and educated at the University of Oxford, she trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary where she met her lifelong partner, fellow nurse Julie Mullard. After completing her training she wrote her first novel, Purposes of Love, in 1937. In 1948, after her novel North Face won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa.

It was in South Africa that Renault was able to write forthrightly about homosexual relationships for the first time - in her last contemporary novel, The Charioteer , published in 1953, and then in her first historical novel, 1956's The Last of the Wine, the story of two young Athenians who study under Socrates and fight against Sparta. Both these books had male protagonists, as did all her later works that included homosexual themes. Her sympathetic treatment of love between men would win Renault a wide gay readership.

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4.4 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • AS
    5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, utterly absorbing historical novel of the last years of Athens' greatness.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 May 2025
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    Like all Mary Renault books absolutely takes you to the time and place and absorbs you in the events of the time. Read this before a visit to Syracuse- and you can see exactly how the Athenian navy was trapped and defeated in the bay and the quarries where their prisoners of war worked.
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  • PCN
    4.0 out of 5 stars Heavy at first but thengets going
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2025
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    The Last of the Wine, Mary Renault - read in a book club.
    The lack of line breaks for each new speaker was confusing and detracts from the readability of the book. That is not easy for a modern reader anyway because its style is somewhat dated compared to modern novels. One comment was that this was because of the length of the book and to reduce the page count, many paragraph breaks were lost. So the next question was, why do that in the ebook version too?
    I think it would be hard for somebody who does not have at least a basic knowledge of ancient Greece to understand this book. It is quite a hard read nowadays. I was reading it on a Kindle device which has the advantage that you simply tap a word and it will give you a definition and link to a Wikipedia article about the item. I made good use of that. A glossary would probably be a good addition or footnotes explaining some of the terms used. Others felt that it brought to life Ancient Greece to those who knew little about it. Someone said yes, except for the smells.
    The pace is slow and by modern standards it would need a lot of editing. It did pick up speed later once the war had started and one identified with Alexias. To me though, the character lacked some conviction. I have always found that a female writer who is writing in the first person as a male lacks something indefinable. For me it's never quite rung true. Mary Renault is a much praised writer but for me she also falls into this category. But the comment was made that she has been praised for the way she wrote about male characters.
    The homosexuality (not defined as such over 2000 years ago) is implied rather than made explicit but that young men had male lovers before marrying to procreate is clear but just how sexual or platonic these relationships were is not clear in the book. Perhaps because it was written in 1956 and Renault had to choose her words more carefully.
    However, once the war got started it picked up pace. We do become more involved with Alexias and the view into his world of Athens in around 400 BCE. The book is meticulously researched and the life and ethos of Greece at that time is described well. Most of the characters we meet through Alexias existed such as Lysis, Socrates, Plato and Phaedo. It was said that it was rather convoluted with too many characters to keep track of. Many of the situations and quotes are relevant today. Another comment was that it seemed a series of set pieces joined together but would make good screen play. Its philosophy is wordy at times but one can see that however different Athenian and Spartan society might have been from today, basic human nature has remained the same.
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  • Hugh Gee
    5.0 out of 5 stars Just wonderful.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 April 2023
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    I read this book first 40 years ago, once since, and now for a third time. I still think it's one of the finest novels I've read, dignified in style, wise and moving. It evokes classical Greece like no other and has descriptions and dialogues that are unmatched, as far as I am concerned. It's not a lightweight book; but it's worth reading carefully and pondering. The way it brings Socrates to life alone is miraculous.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Cathy Watson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2015
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    Writing as a heterosexual, it is fascinating to read this portrayal of a very 'normal' homosexual relationship, paradoxically written at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK. As a matter of course, the younger man takes the older man home to meet his parents who give their approval. Almost all young Greek men had an older male 'friend'. And then as the men get older, they shift over and get married to women. I am not an expert on ancient Greece but Last of the Wine certainly seems to ring true with its wealth of historical information so I presume its portrayal of youthful male homosexual love is also accurate. Plus the book is a great yarn with walk-on parts for Socrates and Plato. Highly recommended.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • Tom (Peak District)
    5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly as advertised.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 November 2023
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    This second hand (well pre-owned) book is exactly as advertised. It is inexpensive and delivered promptly. What's not to like ?
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  • WhatCathyReadNext
    4.0 out of 5 stars Immersive historical fiction that brings the past alive
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 October 2020
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    As soon as I started reading The Last of the Wine, two things struck me. Firstly, I realized I’d read it before, back in 2015. Secondly, that when I read The Flowers of Adonis by Rosemary Sutcliff a few months ago, the reason the story seemed so familiar is that the two books cover pretty much the same ground, namely the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in the period 431 to 405 BC. The difference is that, whereas Alkibiades is the main focus of The Flowers of Adonis (albeit his exploits are described by a series of different narrators), in The Last of the Wine he remains largely off-stage with events being seen from the point of view of Alexias, a young Athenian.

    In her introduction to my Virago Modern Classics edition of The Last of the Wine, Charlotte Mendelson describes Mary Renault as “an Ancient Greek” because of her knowledge of the period and her ability to bring it to life. I agree entirely because the novel wears its historical research lightly, instead immersing the reader in the details of daily life, social and religious rituals. This means The Last of the Wine is more than just a history of the political and military events of that period, it’s the story of a deep and loving relationship between two young men, Alexias and Lysis. Those who enjoy action scenes won’t be disappointed either and there are parts for famous figures of Greek philosophy such as Socrates and Plato.

    I was surprised to learn Renault was nearly fifty when she began writing The Last of the Wine and that, although it was her seventh novel, it was the first to be set in Ancient Greece. I must admit I’d always thought of Renault as a writer of exclusively historical fiction. Mendelson argues the timing was due to the parallels Renault saw between the South Africa in which she was living at the time and her desire to write a love story whose protagonists just happened to be homosexual and would not be “shamed, imprisoned or hounded to death”.

    Renault’s insight when writing about love – and grief – is evident. “Then the pain of loss leaped out on me, like a knife in the night when one has been on one’s guard all day. The world grew hollow, a place of shadows…” Women barely figure in the book, except those offering sexual services or as wives needing protection. As Charlotte Mendelson notes, the men “have the best characters, the best bodies and best lines”.
    9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • David Island
    5.0 out of 5 stars Normal Young Men in Ancient Greece
    Reviewed in the United States on 10 October 2008
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    Keep in mind that this gorgeously written and touching story was first published in 1956 by Renault, an Oxford-educated British woman, dead now 25 years.

    "Last of the Wine" is much more than a coming of age tale, as we like to call some of these stories nowadays. Far from it. Yes, it is a gay love story, sans sex, a subtle and timeless and accurately portrayed romance between 2 beautiful young men in 5th Century B.C. Greece - thus, before Alexander. There's a good bit of history and a lot of fun in meeting some of the incomparable ancients - an aging Socrates and a young Plato, and in hearing about others, Alkibiades, for one. If you manage to read Steven Pressfield and Renault, as well as others writing of this era, it all begins to make sense.

    Renault seems magically to understand perfectly love in its deepest sense between men and those touchy human aspects of love between anyone: possessiveness, jealousy, soft adoration, absence and longing, and the overwhelming desire to spend all one's time with one's love, to say nothing of comfortable easy silences and shared thoughts.

    The 2 primary characters, Alexis (the younger of the two by 6 years) and Lysis, are physical ideals and good to the core. They know how to enjoy the long-lost simple pleasures. I loved them both. She also grasps firmly the intricacies of family, of obligation and of the inevitable inscrutable conflict between father and son.

    "Last of the Wine" is as contemporary as your latest e-mail exchange with your partner or offspring. She writes with finesse and profundity. Consider these excerpts.

    Page 241. "It was a warm spring evening; one smelt the sea, and supper cooking on pinewood fires, and the scent of flowers upon the hillside; we sat in the doorway of our hut in the late sun, greeting friends as they passed."

    Page 242. "The evening sun glowed like bronze upon the reed thatch of the roofs; here and there men were singing about the fires. I (Alexis) said in my heart, `Such things as these are the pleasures of manhood.'"

    Page 243. "But we sat a little longer; for as the sun sank, the moon had risen. Her light had mixed with the afterglow, and the hill behind the city was the colour of skins of lions."

    Page 244. "'Nothing will change, Alexis' (Lysis speaking). `No that is false; there is change wherever there is life.... But what kind of fool would plant an apple-slip, to cut it down at the season when the fruit is setting? Flowers you can get every year, but only with time the tree that shades your doorway and grows into the house with each year's sun and rain.'" As Adlai Stevenson once said, "Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job." These young men had a firm grasp on reality.

    The story traces not only the rise of fledgling democracy but also its temporary demise. The build-up to Socrates' eventual murder by authorities fearful of his teachings is compelling. The end of the story is both uplifting and sad.

    Renault's "Notes" at the end of the book are insightful, the "Chronology Table" is helpful, and the map of "Greece and the Aegean" is a good anchor for orienting yourself to political and physical geography.

    Yes, it is fiction. Yes, the over-riding theme is a gay love story. And yes, it's enthralling and gracious. Relax into the story, flow with its pace, learn from it, and read it with unabashed pleasure. Forget the homophobe reviewers who are falsely "offended" by the story (after, of course, they knowingly have read every word!).
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  • Robbert Bosschart
    5.0 out of 5 stars Real life in the most endearing place and time of classical Greece.
    Reviewed in Spain on 18 September 2021
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    Every time I reread one of her masterpieces set in classical Greece -for I reread Mary Renault again and again- it amazes me anew how alive her stories are. She knows everybody, every place, every time, every myth, every emotion of that era she takes me into. She shows me what really happened there and then. She makes me feel and understand wonders.

    Of all the many books I have read on Antiquity over a span of 60+ years, none ever surpassed her. If you want to know why classical Greece still is important to our lives today, read awesome Mary Renault.
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    Robbert Bosschart
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Real life in the most endearing place and time of classical Greece.

    Reviewed in Spain on 18 September 2021
    Every time I reread one of her masterpieces set in classical Greece -for I reread Mary Renault again and again- it amazes me anew how alive her stories are. She knows everybody, every place, every time, every myth, every emotion of that era she takes me into. She shows me what really happened there and then. She makes me feel and understand wonders.

    Of all the many books I have read on Antiquity over a span of 60+ years, none ever surpassed her. If you want to know why classical Greece still is important to our lives today, read awesome Mary Renault.
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  • B.M.
    3.0 out of 5 stars Very dated
    Reviewed in Canada on 13 October 2019
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    When Mary Renault wrote "Last of the Wine" in 1956, there were very few depictions of male homosexuality in mainstream literature, and as a result she attracted a large gay audience. Sixty years later, the book is dated and its story of male partnerships sounds naive and very old-fashioned, while the central characters appear stiff and wooden, and I found myself unable to care about them. The discussions of philosophy in Golden Age Athens are too complicated for novices, and too superficial for experts; neither will find this aspect of the book satisfying.

    If you are a student in a survey class studying the evolving depiction of homosexuality in literature over the decades, you might find this book of interest. However, if you are looking for good plot development, well-rounded characters, and a realistic portrayal of male same-sex partnerships, you would be better advised to move on.
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  • Ian Mackay
    5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating window on history, philosophy and love.
    Reviewed in Australia on 19 June 2017
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    This is a most rewarding book! We follow Alexias Son of Myron, from birth to death, and with him live through the Peloponnesian War and the extraordinary fall of Athens. We meet some of the main players of the time and get to understand a little of how the amazing advantages of Athens could be whittled away until she was on her knees before Sparta and the other cities.
    Socrates plays a powerful role in the story, as does his tragic failure with Alcibiades, star in almost every department of life, but using it all for self-vindication and self-advancement… in large part thanks to him, Athens makes a series of disastrous choices, from the sacking of Melos to the loss of two armies and most of her navy in an unprovoked attempt to conquer Syracuse. To top it off the execution of Socrates, obliquely foreshadowed towards the end of the story, is largely down to the fact that most people blamed him for the excesses of Alcibiades who had been his pupil.
    Besides the war with its ups and downs there is fascinating philosophical commentary on the dangers of both monarchy and democracy, and also on the nature of love. We tend to oversimplify both these issues today. Friendship between people of the same gender was idealised then, rather than being simply eroticised – it was more a question of a young man looking for an intimate role-model, and an older man looking for an intimate disciple – rather like a knight and his squire. Thanks to Socrates, Alexias and his elder friend set their hearts on chastity in their love. That they fail is felt as a sacrifice to human weakness by both of them… there is no hedonistic self-indulgence to it.
    Highly attractive characters are woven into the narrative: the young Plato for instance, Xenephon and others. Most attractive for me, was Phaedo, enslaved in the sack of Melos and then bought out from servitude in a brothel by disciples of Socrates, to become a brilliant philosopher with his own school at Ellis.
    I can’t recommend this too highly!!
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  • Suzy W.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ancient Greece in a nutshell (or wine jar)
    Reviewed in Spain on 5 January 2021
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    I read this book at least 50 years ago and have just reread it with enormous pleasure. Mary Renault really has a talent for immersing you in a lost civilisation so that you can easily imagine living in those times. The trick is really that she shows how little people have changed since then! A great read, informative and engrossing. Definitely recommend.
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