‘Mary Renault’s portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent, infused at every turn with her life-long passion for the Classics. Her characters live vividly both in their own time, and in ours’ Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe
‘Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers’ Hilary Mantel, bestselling author of Wolf Hall
‘This brilliant retelling of the story of Theseus, the king of Athens, brings Greek mythology vividly to life and remains “one of the truly fine historical novels of modern times”‘ New York Times
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 birthright, escaping bandits and ritual king sacrifice in Eleusis, to slaying the Minotaur in Crete. Renault reimagines the Theseus myth, creating an original, exciting story.
‘Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers’ Hilary Mantel, bestselling author of Wolf Hall
‘This brilliant retelling of the story of Theseus, the king of Athens, brings Greek mythology vividly to life and remains “one of the truly fine historical novels of modern times”‘ New York Times
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 birthright, escaping bandits and ritual king sacrifice in Eleusis, to slaying the Minotaur in Crete. Renault reimagines the Theseus myth, creating an original, exciting story.
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
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
Renault did for Ancient Greece what Hilary Mantel did for the Tudors
