In 430 B. C. the sweet, heady wine of Hellas was running out and little was left but the sour lees. Spartans were pillaging farms outlying Athens and the city was struck by a ghastly plague. Soon Pericles died, the last great leader of the democracy. This is the time at which Mary Renault begins her remarkable novel of a dying way and the agonies of a dying city. By peopling this world for us she has made its terrible, inexorable crumbling vivid, and moving.
The story is told by a young Greek, Alexias…. (p. 5)
This is a free excerpt of 95 words. There are 265 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Renault, Mary 1905–: Critical Essay by Edmund Fuller Access Pass.
