The Persian Boy by Mary Renault Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Persian Boy
Book Review: Emotional
Summary: 5 Stars
I first ran across Mary Renault's work in a library in the usual way. I tend to look absently through book shelves until something jumps out at me. I read Fire From Heaven first. I was excited to see a novel about Alexander The Great because I had always admired this historical character since I first read about him as a child. I was blown away by this first book and ran out to get The Persian Boy.
The impact of this book is doubled after reading the first one because by this point I had grown aquainted with Alexander as a child and now as a man. His portrayal through the eyes of Bagoas, the eunuch, was a fresh perspective and made the connection for the characters more intense. I read this book more than once and each time I was sobbing by the time I reached the end. Even though I knew what the book ended like, even though I KNOW the history of what happens I was reduced to a bundle of tears.
Mary Renault has a unique gift in pulling you in and making you fall in love with the world she creates as if it were your own.
Book Review: Excellent and touching.
Summary: 5 Stars
A very well written book which grabs the reader and won't let go until the last page. This will be one of those books that I will re-read many times over the course of my life.Book Review: Excellent, this will capture your heart
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the reviewers said, "excellent portrayal of two human souls". I fully agree.Alexander is interpreted differently today from historian to historian; I must confess that after reading Fire from Heaven and the Persian Boy, I'm forever captured. I've tried to read less adoring interpretations, only to get angry at the authors. This is not to say that Mrs Renault's view is the only legitimate one, but it is so powerful and convincing and human that it is hard to set aside.
As always, the tale she tells rings true and has meaning. Bagoas isn't only a Watson, here to tell us about Sherlock Holmes. He is a deeply human character in his own light. For a hundred pages, we see Alexander only from what he hears about him, while he is enslaved and used as plaything, then comes to the service of Darius. It has been a long time since I have felt so strongly for a character's misery, and felt so happy when he found love, and as always, Mrs Renault does it beautifully, with a word here and there, never vulgar, never too close, always with that deep sense of decency all her major characters posess.
I found this one vastly better than Fire of Heaven, by the way. As to the historical "truth" behind it all, it is well researched, and if you don't like her portrayal of Alexander's character (or if it rings too good to be true), you still get a wonderful book and a great story, and are treated to an excellent work that stands far above other historical fiction.
Book Review: Explains history...explains the Stone film.....
Summary: 5 Stars
Mary Renault's The Persian Boy does much...it fills in many of the mysteries surrounding Alexander's love for Bagoas, the Persian manservant...and it also, in many ways, enriches the already rich Oliver Stone film of 2004. It's a beautiful read that puts you at once into the thick of battle and them, seemlessly, into the bed chambers and council chambers of some of antiquities great leaders. No one was, of course, there...so it is all somewhat speculation...yet this book takes what I like to call 'Educated Guesses' and runs with them. It's both moving and literate...and a nice quick read...or rather it seems a quick read...which is the best recommendation any book can have.Book Review: Glorious
Summary: 5 Stars
Here is a vivid portrait of perhaps the most extraordinary figure in human history: Alexander of Macedon - as seen through the eyes of his devoted servant, Bagoas. This is the young King who, nearly 2,500 years ago, sought to conquer the world. And though he did not achieve this end (an utter impossibility, as no one knew then what depths were in the oceans or what lied beyond the scope of their own earthbound horizons.) Yet all that he did achieve before his untimely death in Babylon at the age of 32, was amazing - likening him to almost a god, and one who would be known forever as Alexander the Great. Mary Renault gives Bagoas a fine voice - and a depth of passion for his King brilliantly interwoven with genuine adoration and love, so rarely seen in historical writing.
This author's novels are a seductive blending of ancient historical fact and sweeping fiction that's meant only to tell the tale by force of bringing it vividly before your eyes. This history needs to be cherished. Go read this book, and hold it close to your heart.