Mary Renault: A Biography

by David Sweetman

Book Overview

The author of The Charioteer and The King Must Die, Renault studied at Oxford but eventually abandoned the academic world and England for South Africa, where she and her companion, Julie Mullard,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151931100
• ISBN13: 9780151931101
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 2.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A superb biography

I have read and enjoyed Mary Renault's novels of ancient Greece since The King Must Die: A Novel came out in 1958. It got me, like many other of her fans, into reading Greek history. I kept JB Bury's A HISTORY OF GREECE to the Death of Alexander the Great. on my bedside table for years as evening reading. Her other books as they came along, went into my library and have been reread over and over. I don't think anyone has touched her except Steven Pressfield and Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae. I have a few differences with the biographer. I started Charioteer but, perhaps because I am a flagrant heterosexual, I could not get interested. I began the novel assuming it was one of the Greek series. I do think that The Mask of Apollo: A Novel is a wonderful picture of homosexual love for heterosexuals. I can't think of another such sympathetic portrait for the general reader. The biographer also describes The Praise Singer as an unsuccessful novel, coming as her last effort. I disagree and it is my favorite after The Mask of Apollo. The picture of her life with Julie and their experiences as nurses in England in the 1930s are very well done. Only in the novels of AJ Cronin is one likely to find such a good description of pre-war English medicine and the rather grim picture of nurses' lives in that era. I agree with one reviewer who laments the severe cuts in Last of the Wine. It's too bad a restored version could not be published. I do take exception to one reviewer's criticism of her reaction to South African racial policies. She was a writer, not a political figure, and she did what she could to protest government policies. It is always easier to criticize from a distance. I also disagree with the review that said the biography was not very readable. I spent the weekend with it and did not put it down until it was finished. Her life was her own private affair but she did do as much as anyone could to reduce prejudice against homosexuals and to oppose Apartheid. Her fiction is another huge achievement. Hers was a very full life and the biography is a pleasure to read.

nice bio

It is well-written, and easy to read. I especially appreciated the episodes and explanations of the circumstances, political movements, and her struggles which inspired Mary Renault to write each story. Now I understand how each story was created, and what was on her mind when she wrote them.When I first read her , which is a remarkable book, one of her best, I couldn't understand why she didn't take more pages to write about Alkibiades and the defeat of the Athenian fleet. This is the kind of scene she normally takes time and writes in great, vivid details. It seemed so odd and out of her character that she just skimmed through it (although it still came out all right). I had to read it twice to understand what exactly happened, and even after I understood, I wasn't satisfied.Well, the mystery was solved now that I know that the publishing company had forced her to eliminate so many pages, she had to cut out one-third of the book. That particular scene was the one that suffered. I don't blame her if she never forgave the publishing company. We the readers have been deprived a great deal.I was also tickled to read that she had to let her secretary go because the secretary wanted to improve her grammar!Her relationships with her parents, friends and her agents, editors, correspondents, and especially with her companion Julie are heart-warming. This biography brought her person alive and vivid, and now I can look at her works from another dimention.

How Molly Challans Became Mary Renault

Mary Renault, with her delicate handling of alternative sexual interests, touched a chord in a lot of people, whatever their orientation. This is the story about how little Molly Challans (with her love of cowboys and books) because the best selling author of historical novels set in both Bronze age and Classical Greece, Mary Renault.One might almost have predicted the loveless marriage that produced her. Her mother's least attractive qualities seem to resonate in the character of Olympias (Alexander the Great's mother)in her later series (written after her mother's death and final betrayal). The absent or ineffective fathers in her books reflect her other father's physical and emotional distance from his family. And around her momentous events of the 20th century occur-- World War I and II, the rise of the Nationalist Party in South Africa, the liberalization of sexual mores in Britain and the United States, and the struggle against appartheid. This linear story is probably where the reader should go who wants to know more concrete facts about Mary Renault's life (she pronounced it Ren-olt not like the car). The author at times dips into analysis but doesn't linger there. His main informant seems to have been Mary's lifelong companion, Julia and at times the book seems to be as much about Julia as Mary-- he notes at one point that a friend referred to them as M & J rather than separately.I'm still waiting for the definitve evaluation of Renault's novels but until it arrives this book is well worth reading if at times a little on the thin side.

wonderful biography

I've long been an admirer of Renault's novels; her muscular prose, idealistic philosphies, model heroes, and her affection for gay male characters have struck a very resonant chord in me. After reading Sweetman's biography, I am now very much an admirer of Renault herself: intelligent, talented, courageous and strong. Once she wrote to a friend, speaking about feminists and women in general [she had a lifelong distaste for women, a point on which I now find myself differing]: "..the truth obviously is that [they] do seem to have, as men, some extra reserve of neural strength, some capacity for sustained intensity and inner drive, which women do not possess. I will believe otherwise when given evidence," rather selling herself short, I think, by not recognizing that very intensity and drive in herself.Highly recommended for any fan of Renault's.

Very Good Biography

I remember seeing Mary Renault's obituary in a magazine back in 1983 and being quite depressed because I had missed the chance to find out more about the mysterious author of some of my most cherished books - was she indeed a man? What was her life story and how did she come to write the Charioteer, or her Alexander trilogy? This biography suddenly leapt out at me in a book store a few years ago and filled in many of the gaps. It is well written and I recommend it to anyone who is curious to know more about this writer. It is balanced and also examines fairly the unfortunate controversy relating to PEN in South Africa during thje Apartheid era.