Mary Renault
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Mary Renault

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Mary Renault (1905-1983) was best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece with their vivid fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato and Alexander the Great. Born in London in 1905 and educated at the University of Oxford, she trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary where she met her lifelong partner, fellow nurse Julie Mullard. After completing her training she wrote her first novel, Purposes of Love, in 1937. In 1948, after her novel North Face won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa. It was in South Africa that Renault was able to write forthrightly about homosexual relationships for the first time - in her last contemporary novel, The Charioteer , published in 1953, and then in her first historical novel, 1956's The Last of the Wine, the story of two young Athenians who study under Socrates and fight against Sparta. Both these books had male protagonists, as did all her later works that included homosexual themes. Her sympathetic treatment of love between men would win Renault a wide gay readership.
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Featured Article: The top 100 classics of all time


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    • A Novel of Alexander the Great
    • By: Mary Renault
    • Narrated by: Roger May
    • Length: 18 hrs and 33 mins
    • Release date: 12-11-14
    • Language: English
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    • By: Mary Renault
    • Narrated by: Roger May
    • Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
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    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 127 ratings

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    • A Novel of Alexander the Great
    • By: Mary Renault
    • Narrated by: Roger May
    • Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins
    • Release date: 12-11-14
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 365 ratings

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