Description
Theseus is the grandson of the King of Troizen, but his paternity is shrouded in mystery - can he really be the son of the god Poseidon? When he discovers his father's sword beneath a rock, his mother must reveal his true identity: Theseus is the son of Aegeus, King of Athens, and is his only heir. So begins Theseus's perilous journey to his father's palace to claim his birth right, escaping bandits and ritual king sacrifice in Eleusis, to slaying the Minotaur in Crete. Renault reimagines the Theseus myth, creating an original, exciting story.
The King Must Die retells the story of Theseus, bringing mythology vividly to life.
About the Author
Mary Renault (1905-1983) was born in London and educated at St Hughs, Oxford. She trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary, where she met her lifelong partner, Julie Mullard. Her first novel, Purposes of Love, was published in 1937. In 1948, after North Face won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa. There, Renault was able to write forthrightly about homosexual relationships for the first time - in her masterpiece, The Charioteer (1953), and then in her first historical novel, The Last of the Wine (1956). Renault's vivid novels set in the ancient world brought her worldwide fame. In 2010 Fire From Heaven was shortlisted for the Lost Booker of 1970.
Reviews
There's much to say about her interweaving of myth and history and, just as interestingly, there's much to wonder at in the way she fills in the large dark spaces where we know next to nothing about the times she describes ... an important and wonderful writer ... she set a course into serious-minded, psychologically intense historical fiction that today seems more important than ever -- Sam Jordison Guardian Renault did for Ancient Greece what Hilary Mantel did for the Tudors -- Quentin Letts The Week
Book Information
ISBN 9781844089635
Author Mary Renault
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 330g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 127mm * 27mm
The King Must Die retells the story of Theseus, bringing mythology vividly to life.
About the Author
Mary Renault (1905-1983) was born in London and educated at St Hughs, Oxford. She trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary, where she met her lifelong partner, Julie Mullard. Her first novel, Purposes of Love, was published in 1937. In 1948, after North Face won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa. There, Renault was able to write forthrightly about homosexual relationships for the first time - in her masterpiece, The Charioteer (1953), and then in her first historical novel, The Last of the Wine (1956). Renault's vivid novels set in the ancient world brought her worldwide fame. In 2010 Fire From Heaven was shortlisted for the Lost Booker of 1970.
Reviews
There's much to say about her interweaving of myth and history and, just as interestingly, there's much to wonder at in the way she fills in the large dark spaces where we know next to nothing about the times she describes ... an important and wonderful writer ... she set a course into serious-minded, psychologically intense historical fiction that today seems more important than ever -- Sam Jordison Guardian Renault did for Ancient Greece what Hilary Mantel did for the Tudors -- Quentin Letts The Week
Book Information
ISBN 9781844089635
Author Mary Renault
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 330g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 127mm * 27mm
