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The Persian Boy

The Persian Boy

List Price: $14.00
Your Price: $9.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I don't see how anyone could say this book is "weaker" or "less-likeable" than "Fire From Heaven." While liking that book, I thought "The Persian Boy" was even better (BTW, there IS evidence that Bagaos existed). It is a fascinating story, rich in historical detail. Bagaos is a warm, vital character. Having the story told by him allowed me to swallow Renault's idealization of Alexander's character (yes, I cried at the end!). I highly recommend this novel.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: personal feelings aside, this is great fiction
Review: For me this has always been the weakest and least likeable of Mary Renault's Alexander trilogy, and for exactly the reason several other reviews touch on. Hephaistion in Fire from Heaven was such a real and vibrant character that my heart breaks every time he loses Alexander to Bagoas in the Persian Boy. I suppose it is a measure of how well written the book really is though that I still keep on reading it. This book, set in the middle years of Alexander's campaigns, manages to tell both sides of the story, recreating graphically both the crumbling civilisation of the Persian Empire, collapsing under its own weight and the onslaught of a terrifying and strange foreigner; and then the world of the Macedonians and Greeks, strangers in a land far from home, led only by the will of that same strange man, who most of them understand little better than the Persians do. Read this book, you will enjoy it, but make sure you read the other two parts as well, they're even better.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very affecting novel about Alexander the Great and his lover
Review: The first time I read this book it made me cry - having read Fire from Heaven I had very much entered into the feelings of Hephaistion, Alexander's boyhood lover, and it was my appreciation of how he (if he was at all as the author portrays him) must have felt about the arrival of a new lover. This is Renault's strength, that she can make you feel so much as if this is not fiction but history, that it is real. So much so that on reading Robin Lane-Fox's Search for Alexander, I was pleased to read that there is no evidence that Bagoas was Alexander's lover, and that some historians have doubted his very existence! The society of ancient Persia is very little known and this book really makes you feel you know exactly what it was like. Do not read it (or indeed any of Renault's work) if you are homophobic. I also get the feeling she didn't have much time for women, but in the context of ancient Greece this is not surprising.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow! that was a first class trip to Alexander's World.
Review: I have been in love with History since I read my first history book, Alexander is one of my favorite characters, and thanks to "The Persian Boy" I get a glimpse to that man's life, the world that he conquered, and the people that lived in it most complete that trought sole anecdots in a history book. This has been one of those rare books that I force myself not to finish in one read, I feel grieve knowing that this book has an end that I didn't want to read, but I read it, and I'm glad, at least in the fiction of the book, that begoas was there.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best novelization of Alexander the Great's short life
Review: While there is no written historical evidence to confirm Alexander the Great as a homosexual, nonetheless he had very close relationships with two men, Hephaestion and Bagoas, a Persian eunuch. There is an interesting love triangle between the men portrayed in the book. This is a very touching autobiography of Bagoas from his beginnings forced into slavery up until the death of his lover Alexander. The scene of Alexander's death will move most to tears. Historical novelization doesn't get better than this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The life of Alexander as told by his eunuch lover.
Review: This is a terrific book--certainly one of the best I have read in the past few years. It is the second (and best) book in Mary Renault's trilogy on the life of Alexander the Great. For people (like myself) who are largely ignorant of classical history, "The Persian Boy" is a user-friendly, extremely readable overview of the Greek world and the Hellenistic period. Readers should not be put-off by Alexander's homosexual relationship with his eunuch servant (who actually existed, by the way). Rather, enjoy this extremely compassionate and likeable character (Bagoas, the eunuch) and Mary Renault's artistry in bringing his love for Alexander alive. For military history fans, all the battles are here (the defeat of Darius at Issus, the Siege of Tyre, etc.), the famous quotes ("So this is what it means to be king."), and the panoply of historical characters (Philip, Olympias, Ptolemy, Roxanne, and Oxhead the horse). "The Persian Boy" ignited in me a passion for ancient cultures; it is a very memorable book and I hightly recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: you and the past
Review: While you are reading The persian boy you are travelling in the ancien Iran and Asia, you are living with Alexander the Great, you are combatting with him, you are there in the past. While you will finish this book you will cry the death of the King and you will be happy to have been near his last bed with the eyes of Bagoa, his boy

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A very enticing view of Alexander the Great.
Review: ____________________________________________________________________________ _____I have read many books in my 17 years, but few have captured me as The Persian Boy has. It is the story of a persian boy sold into slavery and eventually becomes slave to King Darius III. As Persia is lost to Alexander's army early in the story, the boy becomes first a servant then a lover to Alexander. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is that Renault maintains an enormous level of accuracy both about the historical events, and about the relationship between this boy and Alexander, based on records from the time. ____________________________________________________________________________ _____Another important aspect of this book is how it captures a boy's feelings and emotions when his father is lost, when he is forced to be a prostitute, and when he falls in love. Man-boy love is very taboo in our modern era, and those of you who have prejudices against such things might enjoy the viewpoint of a boy from 2300 years ago. ____________________________________________________________________________

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quietly and Consistently Magnificent
Review: Deeply moving, and unfailingly historically accurate, this story of the young castrated lover of Alexander the Great is surprisingly educational in today's world because it talks about East and West. Through the eyes of "the Persian boy," we come to understand a gulf between mindsets that has not been bridged even to the present time. But you don't think about these things when you're reading Mary Renault's smooth and beautiful prose. You're swept up in the story and above all else, in her fully realized characters. Alexander the Great and his youthful brashness become completely real to you. You imbibe the history. That's how Mary Renault wanted it and she was marvelously accomplished at her task. You take away with you an emotional experience of this incalculably important period of time -- when Alexander through sheer will and conviction brought Hellenism, that is Greek philosophy and ideas to foreign territories all along the Mediterranean coast laying the ground for a way of life which we are still to this day enjoying -- and your comprehension of the sequence of events is forever deepened. Renault's The Last of the Wine brings to life ancient Athens in the same rich and unforgettable manner. Both are sad novels in a way, but sadness with Renault can be very sweet and very rewarding. Highly recommended. The best seller lists of today seldom include such literate and substantial and enduring novels.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Slow Moving Epic
Review: This novel was perhaps a landmark at the time of its publication because of its home-erotic references to Alexander. Since then we have had much made of this aspect of his character, so i think the novelty has worn off a bit. Mary Renault is a gifted writer, and her prose is both picturesque and compelling, but this work is a hard go even for someone interested in Alexander! The story moves slowly. The narrator, a enuch who happens to be named Bagoas, provides a more sympathetic account of who this person really was. The real Bagoas was not killed by Darius, and he proved to be an evil, insidious influence for both Alexander and Darius. This Bagoas is full of longings and pathos, which gets really tiring after a while. Also, his/her longings for sex with Alexander, no matter how tastefully done, can be somewhat revolting to some readers. The constant references to his wearing sexy loin-clothes and long hair to perform errotic male dances is both annoying and disquesting at the same time!

What this novel does show was how wide and perverse sexual habbits were at this time, and how women often featured very little in them! At least in the circles of the ruling elites. We do get some inferences of Alexander's character, which offer some interest, and this can be what makes good historical fiction worthwhile if it paints a convincing portrait of a famous person and his time. Still, no matter how you slice it this is slow, tedious read. This book is probably more suited to gay readers than those really interested in Alexander's life and times. For me Alexander has so many more fascinating aspects to his career besides just his sexual habbits which seem to be the real interest for the recent fascination in him lately. The equally slow moving Oliver Stone epic marches at about the same tedious pace as this novel. I'll bet the producers read it at their bedside.


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