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Summary: Not a Man¿s Man Book
Review: This book had its use, contained accurate historical accounts, but one has to sift through all the petty concerns of the eunuch's affections and jealousies towards Alexander, all of which non-male-heterosexuals might be able to relate to. More like a dysfunctional soap opera in relation to contemporary western culture. Not much action in terms of battle scenes. I guess this would make a great reference on the topic of Boy Love in the ancient world.
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Summary: Praise again and again!
Review: Ahh, The Persian Boy!As most have stated: this book is sublime. Many more scholarly reviewers have discussed themes that bring this story up from the level of mere historical novel. We are treated to a story about fear, hatred, violence, revenge, honor, courage, devotion. But - most clearly - undiluted love. A marvel. And, its great fun too! A real page-turner. Where is the blockbuster Hollywood treatment? I chuckle at the references from my fellow readers about the homosexual content and how "it is not too offensive" to the gentle reader. Some people can be so silly. Surrounded by rape and pillage - this story of homosexual love is a joy to behold. Pity modern society could not be more like our so-called primative forebearers in this regard! (This paperback version is small enough to carry to the beach and on the bus yet beautiful enough to give as a gift.)
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Summary: can't put it down!
Review: If you are looking for an exciting story, you can't go wrong with Alexander biographies and stories. Whether he is portrayed evil or good, his life was full of energy and events that simply amaze you. But of all the books I've read about him, this book is the one that captured my mind the most. First, she starts out with Bagoas's boyhood. Doing so she is successful in educating her reader about Persian people and their culture/customs, the environment and the way it was back then, to prepare us for deeper understanding of the future events. The first one-third of the book is about Bagoas's boyhood, mostly about his court life, which tells what had happened inside the Persian Empire before Alexander actually came into scene. This is a very smart start, because by the time Darius was killed, and his murderer Bessus was arrested by Alexander and executed, with nose and ears cut off, the reader is well prepared to understand why it had to be done that way. She also explains well the reason why Alexander became so Persianized, which created resentments and mutinies and lots of problems. Mary Renaults does the best job in making the reader understand this crucial point which cast shadow over him until he died. As for homosexuality and the love scenes, it is not as disturbing, since it is not graphic at all. Transparent, clean, and good taste. She also brings other characters to life. All that she mentions by their names, the reader will know what kind of person he/she was. Whether her portrayal of Alexander and the way she used the well-known events to develop the characters and story are factual or not, she will convince you effortlessly. Remarkable work, well-studied, well-reasoned, well-developed. You will not be able to put it down once you open the first page.
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Summary: Pure enchantment from "The Persian Boy"
Review: Robert Lipsyte, who wrote some wonderful novels himself, said in a column that his father gave him this book to read one weekend. After putting it off, he finally gave in and was hooked from the first sentence. Mary Renault casts a spell from the first in "The Persian Boy", the pivot of her Alexandriad. Bagoas is born into an aristocratic family; the turmoil following the death of King Ochos claims his father, mother and sisters, and he himself is castrated and sold at the age of 10. The twin horrors are followed in time by another; Bagoas is himself sold by his master to other men as a prostitute. Procured for King Darius, Bagoas's lot changes only slightly; instead of being sold to many men, he is kept by one man, a King he holds in awe for his station, and not out of personal admiration. Darius has made the mistake of underestimating the young Macedonian King Alexander, who at 20 undertakes the reconquest of Greek cities in Asia Minor. But Alexander closes in on the Persian Empire, and Darius suffers one defeat after another until his own warlords lose faith in him. When a coup sees Darius taken prisoner, Bagoas escapes with only his life. In time he is rescued by one of those warlords, who decides to beg Alexander for clemency. Who does he bring to sweeten the plea? Bagoas--as a gift. Alexander is presented by Renault as a man capable of more than mortal feats who is still reassuringly human--more than that, he needs love desperately, from the hero-worship of the soldiers who follow him to the intimate devotion of his lover Hephaistion. Bagoas has never known love at all, only use. When Macedonian King and Persian courtesan meet, the inevitable happens--and this is where the enchantment begins. Renault's mastery is impeccable. With a few well-chosen words, she conjures the images of the great Persian palaces--the ruins at Persepolis, Susa, Ekbatana, and Babylon; she recreates the travels of the Macedonian army so well that any reader who picks up her companion book "The Nature of Alexander" will look at the pictures and exclaim, "I know this! This is--" and name the very scene. But it is her characters that truly live. Bagoas is keenly intelligent, charming, courtly, sarcastic, prey to jealousy and possessiveness when it comes to his lover; his growing maturity merely adds to the pain he experiences as the affair and Alexander's conquests progress. And Alexander is much more accessible here than in "Fire From Heaven," which is a wonderful book but presents Alexander as all light and no fire. Here we get to see Alexander as preening boy, heroic warrior, pragmatic king, and devoted lover. It is a marvelous love story whether or not it actually happened. But the emotional payoffs of the affair are balanced by hideous tragedies, none more affecting than the death of Hephaistion. Bagoas' quiet desperation to keep Alexander with the sane and living is agonizing with the knowledge that Alexander did not survive his lover by more than three months. Renault foreshadows without laying it on too thick, but it's worth noting that the portents of Alexander's death were recorded by historians, and the ancients paid close attention to that sort of thing. The final quarter of the book is grim, with only a few moments of light, and the most poignant moment is when Bagoas, having kept watch over Alexander even after his death, finally gives way to the Egyptian priests who come to embalm the Macedonian. It isn't all romance and grief. Bagoas is, after all, only sixteen when the affair starts; he's prey to insecurity about his place in Alexander's heart, and his two antagonists are Hephaistion, Alexander's lifelong love, and Roxane, the legendary beauty who becomes Alexander's wife. With Hephaistion, Bagoas indulges in the sort of reverie that anyone who's ever had a romantic rival can identify with (stopping short of cutting him into little pieces and feeding him to the dogs). Roxane, on the other hand, earns Bagoas' hatred for good reason, and she is presented as everything Hephaistion isn't: clinging, vindictive, and devouring. Bagoas wryly notes that Alexander has, like most men, married a woman like his mother, and it's asides like this from him that make the story such an indulgent treat to read. Like other reviewers, I will say that if you despise homosexuality and homosexuals, don't pick up the book. But if you can put aside prejudices and read for the sheer pleasure of encountering excellence in writing and losing yourself in another place and time, "The Persian Boy" is still in print.
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Summary: Boy oh Boy, What a Story!
Review: This is a story that begins and ends in horror, with plenty more in between. There is also beauty, glory, triumph and tragedy in this story of Alexander the Great based on the historical record. But most of all there is love, and once we get over the nature of that love, we can surrender ourselves to enjoying the flow of the story as we follow Alexander the Great, one of history's most fascinating figures, on a journey of conquest through the known world. We follow him from the viewpoint of the Persian boy of the title, a narrator very different to the usual fictional protagonist. But this boy is not fictional, he really lived, and I venture to suggest that Mary Renault's tale is not half as colourful as the real thing must have been. I find it hard to lay a handle on this book. It's fiction, it's history, it's a romance, a war story, an epic adventure. It deals with the great themes of humanity and it's a ripping yarn. If you've read any of Mary Renault's other books, you won't need convincing. If you haven't, then enjoy this one as your first taste of her opus, because it is one of her very best.
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Summary: HE'S KING OF THE WORLD!
Review: THE PERSIAN BOY is the centerpiece of Mary Renault's famed fictional trilogy on the life of Alexander the Great, preceded by FIRE FROM HEAVEN and followed by FUNERAL GAMES. This one is probably the best. Narrated by Bagoas, the Persian eunuch "inherited" by Alexander from the entourage of the defeated King Darius, PERSIAN BOY portrays the great Macedonian as both as demi-god and as all too human. He is at once gigantic, fearless, vainglorious, unstoppable,and ruthless on the one hand and tender, solicitous, sentimental (he names a city after his dead dog Perditas), compassionate, and loyal to a fault on the other. Friendship he seems to value above all else, evidenced by his reaction to the death of his boyhood companion and most trusted confidante, Hephaistion. He hangs the doctor who could not save his friend and then plunges into an orgy of despair. Still he never loses sight of his great ambition to remake the entire world in his own image and, like any truly great man, moves ahead despite grief and his own physical impairments. This is an amazing recreation of the ancient world. If any book succeeds in relaying the sights, sounds, smells, customs, dress, mating habits, etc., of a distant time and place, this is it. Bagoas makes for an engaging storyteller. He holds nothing back, and if he turns out to be a bit of a snob, well, what else would one expect from the world's most beautiful eunuch, one who can give no less than the King of the World such sensual fulfillment?
Like any snob, Bagoas favors excellence over mediocrity, and in Alexander excellence is given human form. No wonder Bagoas loves him so! And that love story provides this novel its center, its tender heart. It is subtle, suggestive, and very real. Male writers should be as adept as Renault in their depictions of male male relationships, demphasizing the physical and giving more attention to the emotional. The novel bogs down in places and becomes repetitious, but it is well worth sticking with till the end.
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Summary: The Church of Renault
Review: "The Persian Boy" was the first Mary Renault book I ever read and so began my obssession with Renault and all that is Alexander and ancient Greece. Brilliantly written---I felt as if I were there right along with the Great Alexander and his male concubine as he conquered Asia minor. I have never been so captivated by an author and her books and I've yet to read anyone who could rival Renault's command of history, human psychology and language. This was the best, most memorable journey a book has ever taken me.
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Summary: the emotional connection
Review: there are many reviews of ms. renault's work here already, so i will keep this very brief: the reason mary renault is my favorite author is that she can bring the emotional and human quality of her characters to the surface. she makes these long dead people with strange names come alive. she gives them a quotidian life. she makes them human, and humane. true, her knowledge of the ancient greeks is encyclopedic. true, her descriptions are wonderous, but her deep empathy for the people in her novels is what separates her from other historical writers. she also handles homoeroticism/homosocial behavior with a sweetness and sensitivity that demonstrates the value of the delicate bonds that men should be encouraged to explore and nurture. her compassion for the human experience is sometimes overwhelming.
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Summary: Excellent, this will capture your heart
Review: 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.
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Summary: unforgettable
Review: This is the story of the beautiful Persian boy who survives the murder of his parents the destruction of his home and the enslavement and mutilation of his body. He becomes the slave of King Darius and later finds the greatest love of his life with Alexander the Great. Mary Renault wrote an amazing historical fiction novel. It brings the ancient world to life.
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