The King Must Die; The Bull from the Sea: Introduction by Daniel Mendelsohn (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series)

These two books will put you in the head of a well-born and legendary Mycenaean boy as he grows from 5-years-old into a highborn inheritance and travels through Mycenaean Greece and the Aegean Sea on hair-raising adventures. I read these two books a half century ago, and their story of Theseus marked the beginning of my lifelong love for Hellenic history. I am reading them again to assure that I can recommend them for Middle Grade children of friends. At the time they were released, they were called "lusty" by the publisher, because the word "lusty" was riskee and avant garde. How times have changed. They are written by a woman (Mary R.) in the first person Point-of-View of a male (Theseus). When I was a Middle Grade kid going to a Catholic elementary school and Public Junior High, these books would have struck me as a great adventure in exotic cultures with nothing much more than occasional nods to Theseus being a boy who liked girls, and who was aware that some other boys liked boys as-well-as girls. Mary R. just wasn't raunchy, but she did get darker with her later books on Alexander the Great, at which point I actually stopped reading in midstream of that series. But, I'm sticking with these two as o.k. for kids whose parents let them watch prime time TV without hard parental controls.

This edition of the Mary Renault Classic is very nice, in hard cover, and highly recommended for those who love Greek Mythology and history. Her treatment of the diversity of male sexuality, though not as in the forefront in this novel, is extremely gratifying and affirmative. It is true that her formulation of male homosexuality is somewhat informed by a 1950s configuration, but whatever her theories it is the acceptance and inclusion of it that adds depth and truth to understanding ancient Greek society.

Excellent tie-together tale from major Greek myths including Perseus, Ariadne, Minotaur and many more. Interpreted with good research of the archeological studies at time this was written. Many questions about customs, and explaining some of the more confusing myths, First book takes you to Crete and back to Athens and death of King Ageus, second book takes you to the fall and death of Perseus.An easy read to review and organize the Greek myths.

Mary Renault's historical fiction books are classics. Good literature with a wonderful sense of metaphore. She stays very close to, then enhances, mythical "history." Character development is excellent and her style is descriptive, yet not with the overpowering self-indulgence of some modern authors that tends to get in the way of the story. Incidentally, the jacket art of this (these two)books suggests children's literature. It is not.

My favorite bit of fiction ever. Mary Renault has created a fascinating, believable character and life from a very ancient story. An amazing job!So glad these novels (really a single two-part work) were finally made available in one volume.

The review is not for the literary content of these two novels, IMHO the finest fictions derived from Greek mythology ever penned; this particular edition, the Science Fiction Book Club printing of 1998, seemed like a nice opportunity to get these two linked books under one cover, as read together the novels are seamless. BUT - towards the end of the first novel, the typographical errors in my copy started to mount and increase in number - first one, then several, then entire consecutive sentences deformed, that at the point where a major crisis occurred in the narrative, the narrative lapsed into incoherent gibberish, indecipherable, such that I had to get a library copy to read the offending paragraphs to figure out what had just happened. The typesetter appears to have gotten hammered on the job, then sobered up and finished the work up reasonably well. But I have never seen such damage inflicted by editorial errors EVER. And it is doubly confounding, as the publisher had leased a work that had been competently edited and then botched it. Buyer beware, skip this imprint and purchase the novel separately from its proper publisher.

I first read these novels in 1963 as a 16 year old boy in New York City. I loved the books then and I love them now.

#I fail to comprehend why her marvelous books: king must die,Bull from the sea, etc.are not not in kindle format!