The Praise Singer, (Paperback)

from LisaMaria_C

My introduction to Mary Renault was The King Must Die, the first of two novels about Theseus--it was actually assigned reading in high school. What impressed me so much there was how she took a figure out of myth and grounded him historically. After that I quickly gobbled up all of Renault's work...

from richardderus

This book was a re-read, I feel sure, since I was hooked on her stuff in the Seventies...yet I felt curiously unfamiliar with the book. I recalled some scenes, such as Simonides returning from home to rejoin his master Kleobis in their Samian exile; I found a lot of the book to be less clear in m...

from antiquary

I would give this six stars if I could -- utterly wonderful recreation of the life of a wandering poet in ancient Greece, just at the time the Persians were conquering the Ionians. It may flatter Simonides --who may have been more greedy and mercenary than this version -- but it does not see him ...

from 2chances

This is not my absolute favorite Mary Renault - that would be The Persian Boy OF COURSE - but I give it five stars nonetheless because the worst book by Mary Renault is better than the best book of most writers. And The Praise Singer is definitely in the top tier of Renault's novels of ancient Gr...

from antiquary

I would give this six stars if I could -- utterly wonderful recreation of the life of a wandering poet in ancient Greece, just at the time the Persians were conquering the Ionians. It may flatter Simonides --who may have been more greedy and mercenary than this version -- but it does not see him ...