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1995-01-24
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From: danny@cs.su.oz.au (Danny Yee)
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 23:15:39 +1000
Subject: Book Review - The Charioteer
title: The Charioteer
by: Mary Renault
publisher: Longmans 1953
subjects: fiction, romance
other: 400 pages
Mary Renault is best known for her Greek historical novels --
works such as _Fire From Heaven_, _The Last of the Wine_ and _The
King Must Die_. _The Charioteer_ is conclusive evidence of what
was already obvious: Renault is a great novelist, not "just" one of
the outstanding historical novelists of all time. Set in England
during World War Two, in the dark days after the retreat from Dunkirk,
_The Charioteer_ is a novel about love. A "novel about love" rather
than a romance, because, although it is set in and around hospitals
(drawing on Renault's own wartime experience), it is certainly not
your typical hospital romance. Though it is very obviously a post-war
English novel, _The Charioteer_ has a certain timeless feel to it;
the use of explicit links to Plato's Phaedrus, which would have
seemed contrived in weaker hands, doesn't seem at all inappropriate.
Those who appreciate Renault as a novelist, not just for her historical
settings, should definitely not pass this one by.
--
%T The Charioteer
%A Mary Renault
%I Longmans
%C London
%D 1953
%O hardcover
%P 400pp
%K fiction, romance
Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au)
24 January 1995
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All book reviews by Danny Yee are available via anonymous FTP
ftp.anatomy.su.oz.au in /danny/book-reviews (index INDEX) or
URL http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/book-reviews/index.html
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Copyright (C) Danny Yee 1995 : Comments and criticism welcome
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