Mary Renault

Winner of an MGM prize: A doctor finds love with a talented, handsome younger man—who happens to be her patient
Hilary Mansell is a talented young doctor, but she is unlucky in love and still recovering from losing out on a keenly sought appointment, one that was awarded to none other than her former lover. A new position in the scenic Cotswolds offers the balm of tranquillity. But life proves less than placid when Hilary...

The New York Times–bestselling portrayal of the life of ancient Greece’s lyric poet. “[Renault's] historical novels . . . are among the finest ever written” (The Washington Post Book World).
Simonides of Keos lived during the fifth and sixth centuries BC, a fertile period for the arts, when myths were being acted out and verse had just begun to be written down. In this evocative portrayal...

Mary Renault’s inventive debut novel: A love-triangle drama set against the backdrop of hospital life
Working in a hospital in 1930s Britain, two colleagues fall into an emotionally charged relationship. Vivian and Mic work demanding jobs and must endure long gaps between their secret meetings. But it is their relationship with Vivian’s brother, Jan, a charismatic scientist, that really complicates their union. Before falling...

An “intriguing and invaluable” biography of Alexander the Great by the novelist whose fiction redefined Ancient Greece (The New York Times).
Acclaimed writer Mary Renault is widely known for her provocative historical novels of Alexander the Great and his lovers. But she also authored this nonfiction classic, a fresh, illuminating look at a man whose legend has remained larger than life for more than two thousand years....

A wry romp through 1930s mores, social and sexual
Progressive for its time as well as ours, The Friendly Young Ladies is a deftly witty comedy set in England between the wars. At eighteen, Elsie has had enough of life at her bickering parents’ Cornwall home. She decides to join up with her bohemian older sister, Leo, in the city. Leo’s life is full of surprises—not least her significant other, Helen, a...

This novel of ancient Greece, featuring Plato and a young actor, by the bestselling author of the Novels of Alexander the Great, is “a shining light” (Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Award–winning author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies).
In the fourth century BC, Nikeratos is an actor, a devotee of Plato, and a friend of Dion of Syracuse. Their relationship gives Nikeratos rare proximity to the Greek political...