- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (Jun 17 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0156000601
- ISBN-13: 978-0156000604
- Product Dimensions: 22.7 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 508 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#789,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #39 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Biographies & Memoirs > Lesbian
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This outstanding biography of the celebrated historical novelist was a Lambda Literary Award nominee. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
This first nonacademic biography of Renault was developed by Sweetman (Van Gogh, 1990) from a rare interview granted him in 1981, two years before his subject's death. In that interview, Renault conveyed both her discomfort with being an ``apostle of the sexual revolution'' and her pride in the research behind her award- winning historical novels. Daughter of a provincial doctor, Renault attended St. Hugh's, an Oxford college for women. To escape an idle future as a maiden daughter living in her mother's sewing room, she trained to be a nurse. Along with the discipline and deprivation, she discovered her sexual nature and Julie Mullard, who was to become her life- long companion and the subject of her first novel, the subtly sexual The Purposes of Love (1939)--the first of Renault's series of contemporary novels that culminated in The Charioteer (1953), an open and sympathetic depiction of homosexual love. By the time it was published, Renault--in order to escape high taxes, the cold, and social rejection--had moved to South Africa, where she began publishing the historical novels for which she's best remembered. Carefully researched, richly imagined, her dignified representations of homosexuality among the heros and gods of ancient Greece and Rome won her a following of gay liberationists- -whose position she rejected as ``sexual tribalism.'' As honorary president of the Cape Town chapter of PEN, Renault was attacked by Nadine Gordimer for not including blacks in the chapter--which is about as controversial as Renault ever became: When she died at age 78, many still believed that her novels had been written by a man. Somewhere between this wary approach to an exceptional mind and the academic jargon that Renault seems to attract, there's still much to be explained. Renault continues to wear her own Mask of Apollo. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
nice bio,
By PuppyTalk "BlackMutt" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mary Renault: A Biography (Paperback)
It is well-written, and easy to read. I especially appreciated the episodes and explanations of the circumstances, political movements, and her struggles which inspired Mary Renault to write each story. Now I understand how each story was created, and what was on her mind when she wrote them.When I first read her <the Last of the Wine>, which is a remarkable book, one of her best, I couldn't understand why she didn't take more pages to write about Alkibiades and the defeat of the Athenian fleet. This is the kind of scene she normally takes time and writes in great, vivid details. It seemed so odd and out of her character that she just skimmed through it (although it still came out all right). I had to read it twice to understand what exactly happened, and even after I understood, I wasn't satisfied. Well, the mystery was solved now that I know that the publishing company had forced her to eliminate so many pages, she had to cut out one-third of the book. That particular scene was the one that suffered. I don't blame her if she never forgave the publishing company. We the readers have been deprived a great deal. I was also tickled to read that she had to let her secretary go because the secretary wanted to improve her grammar! Her relationships with her parents, friends and her agents, editors, correspondents, and especially with her companion Julie are heart-warming. This biography brought her person alive and vivid, and now I can look at her works from another dimention.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An author for all time,
By Geoff Puterbaugh (Chiang Mai, T. Suthep, A. Muang Thailand) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mary Renault: A Biography (Paperback)
Mary Renault's wonderful novel, "The Last of the Wine," was a major influence on me as a young man. As the years went by, I read everything I could find by her, including the early novels, such as "Promise of Love" (in England, "Purposes of Love") and "Return to Night." I found that everything she had written was good.But who was Mary Renault? In the days when I worked with the Gay Academic Union in New York, I learned that she was "a lesbian whose real name was Mary Challans." This was interesting, but not nearly enough information! This well-done biography gives us a very complete portrait of Mary. She was a genius of the first water, whose parents totally failed to understand or appreciate her. ("Mary! You must dress up pretty to attract a husband" was the never-ending wail of her mother.) In fact, reading this biography provides an irony: so many parents want their children to be "gifted," to be "geniuses." And then, when they get their wish, they wind up hating the genius child, because (duh) the genius child has a mind of her own! Mary's course through life was perilous and interesting. Having sworn never to be condemned to marriage or teaching, she wound up choosing a career as a nurse. She wrote her fingers off. Finally, at the end of World War II, she got a huge, good surprise. She won the MGM Prize, at that time worth $150,000!! But that "small sum" of $30,000 was enough for Mary to relocate to South Africa with her lover, a wonderful woman who had been sharing Mary's life for a decade already. They ran through the money, being duped and bled by dishonest gay men (!), until it became clear that both of them would have to go back to work. Mary produced "The Charioteer." It was the outstanding gay novel of its time, deeply imbued with Platonic philosophy. She went on to write "The Last of the Wine" and "The Persian Boy," among many other classics. Her parents never appreciated what she had done. They never understood that their baby girl was a genius, who played no small role in the sexual revolution of the twentieth century, and in the more important ongoing search for truth about human nature. Very highly recommended!
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful biography,
This review is from: Mary Renault: A Biography (Paperback)
I've long been an admirer of Renault's novels; her muscular prose, idealistic philosphies, model heroes, and her affection for gay male characters have struck a very resonant chord in me. After reading Sweetman's biography, I am now very much an admirer of Renault herself: intelligent, talented, courageous and strong. Once she wrote to a friend, speaking about feminists and women in general [she had a lifelong distaste for women, a point on which I now find myself differing]: "..the truth obviously is that [they] do seem to have, as men, some extra reserve of neural strength, some capacity for sustained intensity and inner drive, which women do not possess. I will believe otherwise when given evidence," rather selling herself short, I think, by not recognizing that very intensity and drive in herself.Highly recommended for any fan of Renault's.
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