The King Must Die
A Virago Modern Classic
$40.80
- Hardcover
416 pages
- Release Date
7 July 2025
Summary
‘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’ Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe
The true parentage of Theseus, grandson of the King of Troizon, has always been shrouded in mystery. Rumours swirl that his father is Poseidon himself. But when he learns the truth - that he is the son and heir of Aegeus, King of Athens - Theseus sets out on a quest to claim his birthright.
…Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780349019802 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0349019800 |
| Author: | Mary Renault, Bettany Hughes |
| Publisher: | Little, Brown Book Group |
| Imprint: | Virago Press Ltd |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 416 |
| Release Date: | 7 July 2025 |
| Weight: | 480g |
| Dimensions: | 202mm x 134mm x 38mm |
| Series: | Virago Modern Classics |
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What They're Saying
Critics 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 *
About The Author
Mary Renault
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.
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