The Persian Boy
A Novel of Alexander the Great: A Virago Modern Classic
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'One of the greatest historical novels ever written'
SARAH WATERS
'I love to find queer representation in historical fiction. . . Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing'
DOUGLAS STUART
'Fierce, complex and eloquent'
MADELINE MILLER
'Mary Renault is a shining light'
HILARY MANTEL
***
A groundbreaking queer classic and powerful reimagining of the last years of Alexander the Great, told through the eyes of his lover.
I thought, There goes my lord, whom I was born to follow. I have found a king.
And, I said to myself, looking after him as he walked away, I will have him, if I die for it.
Bagoas, abducted as a boy and sold as a eunuch, has been transported to the heart of the Persian court as courtesan to King Darius. But when the Macedon army conquers his homeland, Bagoas finds freedom at the hands of their golden young commander, whose name is already becoming a legend: Alexander.
Their encounter sparks a passionate devotion that shapes the Persian boy's future - and deepens into a relationship that will sustain them both through assassination plots, political intrigue and the threat of Alexander's own restless ambition. This is a spellbinding tale of power, loyalty and loss - a vision of history transfigured by love.
'Nowhere else in fiction have Alexander's beauty and charisma blazed with such potency'
TOM HOLLAND
'Passionate and captivating'
SEÁN HEWITT
'All my sense of the ancient world - its value, its style, the scent of its wars and passions - comes from Mary Renault'
EMMA DONAGHUE
'The Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century'
ANTONIA SENIOR, THE TIMES
SARAH WATERS
'I love to find queer representation in historical fiction. . . Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing'
DOUGLAS STUART
'Fierce, complex and eloquent'
MADELINE MILLER
'Mary Renault is a shining light'
HILARY MANTEL
***
A groundbreaking queer classic and powerful reimagining of the last years of Alexander the Great, told through the eyes of his lover.
I thought, There goes my lord, whom I was born to follow. I have found a king.
And, I said to myself, looking after him as he walked away, I will have him, if I die for it.
Bagoas, abducted as a boy and sold as a eunuch, has been transported to the heart of the Persian court as courtesan to King Darius. But when the Macedon army conquers his homeland, Bagoas finds freedom at the hands of their golden young commander, whose name is already becoming a legend: Alexander.
Their encounter sparks a passionate devotion that shapes the Persian boy's future - and deepens into a relationship that will sustain them both through assassination plots, political intrigue and the threat of Alexander's own restless ambition. This is a spellbinding tale of power, loyalty and loss - a vision of history transfigured by love.
'Nowhere else in fiction have Alexander's beauty and charisma blazed with such potency'
TOM HOLLAND
'Passionate and captivating'
SEÁN HEWITT
'All my sense of the ancient world - its value, its style, the scent of its wars and passions - comes from Mary Renault'
EMMA DONAGHUE
'The Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century'
ANTONIA SENIOR, THE TIMES
Not available for shipping to the following countries:
- ASM
- GUM
- MNP
- UMI
- FSM
- MHL
- PHL
- PRI
- USA
- VIR
- Published: Aug 07 2014
- 197 x 131mm
- ISBN: 9781844089581
Press Reviews
Douglas Stuart, author of 'Shuggie Bain'
I love to find queer representation in historical fiction. This is a reframing of the later years of Alexander the Great's life, told from the perspective of his young, gelded lover, the servant Bagoas. Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing and it's really moving to see the warrior through his lover's adoring gaze. You'll be left wishing that someone worshipped you like that.
- Sarah Waters
Renault's masterpiece. One of the greatest historical novels ever written
- Hilary Mantel
Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us
- Madeline Miller
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
- Emma Donoghue
All my sense of the ancient world - its values, its style, the scent of its wars and passions - comes from Mary Renault. I turned to writing historical fiction because of something I learned from Renault: that it lets you shake off the mental shackles of your own era, all the categories and labels, and write freely about what really matters to you
Antonia Senior
The TimesThe Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century . . . it represents the pinnacle of [Renault's] career . . . Renault's skill is in immersing us in their world, drawing us into its strangeness, its violence and beauty. It's a literary conjuring trick like all historical fiction - it can only ever be an approximation of the truth. But in Renault's hands, the trick is so convincing and passionately conjured. Nowhere is this more evident than in The Persian Boy . . . Bagoas is a brilliant narrator. Rendered unreliable by his passion, he is always believeable and sympathetic . . . His Persian background allows him to see the king and his Macedonians through the questioning eyes of an alien'
- The Times
Renault's skill is in immersing us in their world, drawing us into its strangeness, its violence and beauty . . . a literary conjuring trick . . . so convincing and passionately conjured