The King Must Die
A Virago Modern Classic
Mary Renault author Bettany Hughes editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Published:5th Mar '15
£8.99
Available for immediate dispatch.
The King Must Die retells the story of Theseus, bringing mythology vividly to life.
Theseus is the grandson of the King of Troizen, but his paternity is shrouded in mystery - can he really be the son of the god Poseidon? When he discovers his father's sword beneath a rock, his mother must reveal his true identity: Theseus is the son of Aegeus, King of Athens, and is his only heir. So begins Theseus's perilous journey to his father's palace to claim his birth right, escaping bandits and ritual king sacrifice in Eleusis, to slaying the Minotaur in Crete. Renault reimagines the Theseus myth, creating an original, exciting story.
There's much to say about her interweaving of myth and history and, just as interestingly, there's much to wonder at in the way she fills in the large dark spaces where we know next to nothing about the times she describes ... an important and wonderful writer ... she set a course into serious-minded, psychologically intense historical fiction that today seems more important than ever -- Sam Jordison Guardian Renault did for Ancient Greece what Hilary Mantel did for the Tudors -- Quentin Letts The Week
ISBN: 9781844089635
Dimensions: 197mm x 127mm x 27mm
Weight: 330g
416 pages