The King Must Die - Softcover

Renault PSE, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0394751043 ISBN 13: 9780394751047

Publisher: Vintage, 1988

Synopsis

In this ambitious, ingenious narrative, celebrated historical novelist Mary Renault take legendary hero Theseus and spins his myth into a fast-paced and exciting story.

Renault starts with Theseus' early years, showing how the mystery of his father's identity and his small stature breed the insecurities that spur his youthful hijinx. As he moves on to Eleusis, Athens, and Crete, his playfulness and fondness for pranks matures into the courage to attempt singular heroic feats, the gallantry and leadership he was known for on the battlefield, and the bold-hearted ingenuity he shows in navigating the labyrinth and slaying the Minotaur. In what is perhaps the most inventive of all her novels of Ancient Greece, Renault casts Theseus in a surprisingly original pose; she teases the flawed human out of the bronze hero, and draws the plausible out of the fantastic.

About this title

Review:

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)

From the Publisher:

Bringing Greek mythology vividly to life, The King Must Die and its sequel, The Bull from the Sea, tell the amazing adventures of Theseus, famous for slaying the Minotaur, defeating the Amazons and rescuing Persephone from the underworld.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0394751043
• ISBN 13: 9780394751047
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352