SIGNED, INSCRIBED & DATED BY MARYT RENAUL,T p
ublished by Longman , 1970, hardcover, 410 pages, dust jacket price clipped with some edgewear, otherwise condition: very good.
Mary Renault was a writer best known for her historical novels set in ancient Greece. In 1948, she moved to Durban, South Africa with her partner, Julie Mullard, and later to Cape Town, where she spent the rest of her life. She devoted herself to writing historical fiction in the 1950s, which were also her most successful books. She is best known for her historical fiction today.
Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece and Egypt to India and a new cosmopolitan model for western civilisation.
In Alexander's childhood, his defiant character was molded into the makings of a king. His mother, Olympias, and his father, King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son's loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle. His love for the youth Hephaistion, on whom he depended for he rest of his life, taught him trust, whilst Aristotle's tutoring provoked his mind and Homer's Iliad fuelled his aspirations. He killed his first man in battle at the age of twelve and became the commander of Macedon's cavalry at eighteen - by the time his father was murdered and he acceded to the throne, Alexander's skills had grown to match his fiery ambition.