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Mary Renault
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The Persian Boy Paperback – February 12, 1988

by Mary Renault (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,042 ratings
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“It takes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior.”–The Atlantic Monthly

The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.
Previous page
  1. Book 2 of 3
    The Novels of Alexander the Great
  2. Print length
    432 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Vintage
  5. Publication date
    February 12, 1988
  6. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.95 x 7.9 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0394751019
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0394751016
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

kes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior. The Atlantic Monthly

The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

From the Back Cover

"It takes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior."-"The Atlantic Monthly
The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander's mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reissue edition (February 12, 1988)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394751019
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394751016
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.95 x 7.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,042 ratings

About the author

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Mary Renault

Mary Renault

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Mary Renault (1905-1983) was best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece with their vivid fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato and Alexander the Great.

Born in London in 1905 and educated at the University of Oxford, she trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary where she met her lifelong partner, fellow nurse Julie Mullard. After completing her training she wrote her first novel, Purposes of Love, in 1937. In 1948, after her novel North Face won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa.

It was in South Africa that Renault was able to write forthrightly about homosexual relationships for the first time - in her last contemporary novel, The Charioteer , published in 1953, and then in her first historical novel, 1956's The Last of the Wine, the story of two young Athenians who study under Socrates and fight against Sparta. Both these books had male protagonists, as did all her later works that included homosexual themes. Her sympathetic treatment of love between men would win Renault a wide gay readership.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
1,042 global ratings
wrong cover😑
1 Star
wrong cover😑
the cover listed is not the cover that will be delivered to you. the one in my photo is the cover. if you are looking to complete the set, it will not match😑😑
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Top reviews from the United States

Nathan T.
5.0 out of 5 stars one of the greatest historical novels
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2024
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Mary Renault tells the bittersweet story of Alexander the Great's last years as experienced by Bagoas, Alexander's beloved Persian boy. A touching love story and a portrait of a visionary multinational empire-builder. It is the sequel to Renault's Fire from Heaven about Alexander's early years but can be read independently.
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PuppyTalk
5.0 out of 5 stars can't put it down!
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2002
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If you are looking for an exciting story, you can't go wrong with Alexander biographies and stories. Whether he is portrayed evil or good, his life was full of energy and events that simply amaze you. But of all the books I've read about him, this book is the one that captured my mind the most.
First, she starts out with Bagoas's boyhood. Doing so she is successful in educating her reader about Persian people and their culture/customs, the environment and the way it was back then, to prepare us for deeper understanding of the future events. The first one-third of the book is about Bagoas's boyhood, mostly about his court life, which tells what had happened inside the Persian Empire before Alexander actually came into scene. This is a very smart start, because by the time Darius was killed, and his murderer Bessus was arrested by Alexander and executed, with nose and ears cut off, the reader is well prepared to understand why it had to be done that way. She also explains well the reason why Alexander became so Persianized, which created resentments and mutinies and lots of problems. Mary Renaults does the best job in making the reader understand this crucial point which cast shadow over him until he died.
As for homosexuality and the love scenes, it is not as disturbing, since it is not graphic at all. Transparent, clean, and good taste.
She also brings other characters to life. All that she mentions by their names, the reader will know what kind of person he/she was. Whether her portrayal of Alexander and the way she used the well-known events to develop the characters and story are factual or not, she will convince you effortlessly. Remarkable work, well-studied, well-reasoned, well-developed. You will not be able to put it down once you open the first page.
21 people found this helpful
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Carolyn
4.0 out of 5 stars A good novel about Alexander the Great
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2011
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I'm not a big fan of Bagoas, but I really enjoyed reading this novel about the personal life of Alexander the Great from his triumphal entrance into Babylon until his death. The historical Alexander did indeed have a personal magnetism that inspired love in so many people. This novel fully explores that. Page 179 describes Alexander reading the Iliad to Bagoas and describing the love between Achilles and Patroklos, and Bagoas says, "He [Alexander] did not tell it with art, like the taletellers in the market, but as if he had been there and remembered everything. At last I knew where my rival [Hephaestion] stood, grafted into his spirit, deeper than any memories of the flesh.". Pages 328-329 describe what could have happened on the crossing of the Gredosian desert, when Hephaestion goes back to save Bagoas from death and asks Bagoas to look after Alexander. When Bagoas tells Alexander about it, the King says, "That is Hephaestion; it always has been."; and it was as if he closed again the curtain guarding a shrine." Pages 383 and 384 describe Alexander's grief after Hephaestion's death. "I [Bagoas] thought, He [Alexander] has rebuilt the legend in everlasting bronze. He will keep faith with it, if he lives to threescore and ten. Hephaestion's regiment is always to bear his name whoever may command it, just so he will be forever Alexander's lover; no one else will ever hear, "I love you best." "The Persian Boy" also describes the love and respect that Bagoas felt for Alexander, and that is very touching. I don't read many novels, but this one is worth the time and money.
7 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive Historical Fictional n
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2023
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This is an excellent novel. It delicately explores the love between Alexander the Great and the beautiful eunuch, Bagoas, who was apparently a very real servant and lover of the Macedonian conqueror. It is on a level with Hilary Mantel which is a very high level for historical fiction.
2 people found this helpful
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twelvejan
5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Conquered Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2014
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*Full review with quotes on Goodreads*

Despite enjoying Fire from Heaven, I was reluctant to continue with The Persian Boy. I assumed it was written in a traditional, stilted, third-person account; like the former which took me almost a month to complete it. Many months later, upon realising that TPB was actually written in a first-person account, i.e. Bagoas, I picked it up immediately. And I was truly enraptured by the brilliance of it.

Writing from Bagoas' perspective has its pros and cons. While it makes reading this a lot easier, I felt disengaged from it. I had wanted to witness Alexander's great conquests; like the Battle of Issos, Battle of Arbela, his Indian campaign, and a great many other which I couldn't remember because it was only mentioned in passing. After reading David Gemmell's Troy series and realising I quite dig the military tactics and battle strategies, I was hoping for that in TPB. What makes Alexander so great is him unconquered in battles and being one of the most successful commanders. I was disappointed that this significant aspect of his life was not the main focus in TPB.

The romantic aspect of TPB was not what I had expected either. Written from Bagoas' perspective, the romantic feeling felt one-sided. And perhaps, it was just that. While we witness Bagoas undying love, loyalty, and devotion towards Alexander, we only caught glimpses of his affection towards Bagoas; sweet whisperings of nothing. It was inferred that Alexander 'was in love with giving, almost to folly'. That Bagoas was explicitly mentioned in sources as Alexander's eromenos simply puts him above the rest of his common men. But Hephaistion is in a class of his own.

It was Alexander and Hephaistion's relationship I was craving for. The third-person account in Fire from Heaven hid no secrets that Hephaistion loved Alexander. And even if the love is, perhaps, unrequited, one could bear witness that the former did take up a large portion of his heart.

Alexander did in fact went delirious shortly after Hephaistion's death; the exuberant funeral pyre, the public mourning, the attempt at raising Hephaistion to be a god. However, since this was in Bagoas' perspective, one could not witness the intense pain Alexander felt at the death of his beloved. Again, I was robbed off this.

His determination to establish a Persianate society among ALL his people; adopting the elements of the Persian dress, the prostration, the massive dowries for the mass marriage of his Macedonian senior officers to Persian noblewomen, one could infer that Alexander has a strong attachment to Persia. To promulgate his desperate attempts at marrying these two cultures together, it is imperative that this aspect of his life be told from Bagoas' perspective.

Conclusion: This is the third time I'm mentally sobbing in public over the death of my favourite hero, while commuting to work. I was trying to pass off my sniffles for sinusitis. I know it was coming. But Renault's lyrical writing just destroyed me.
11 people found this helpful
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Luis Serra
5.0 out of 5 stars Clássico
Reviewed in Spain on November 5, 2022
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Um clássico da literatura lgbt, narra a vida de um eunuco em primeira pessoa.
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Nicola - ニコラ
5.0 out of 5 stars Il romanzo più bello di Mary Renault
Reviewed in Italy on December 12, 2021
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Ci sono libri che sono in grado di cambiarti la vita poiché riescono a farti vedere il mondo sotto una prospettiva diversa, talvolta addirittura stravolta.
“Il ragazzo Persiano” di Mary Renault è senza dubbio uno di questi.
Una biografia travolgente di uno dei personaggi storici più interessanti della storia dell’umanità: Alessandro Magno.
Una biografia insolita perchè il tutto è narrato in prima persona da un “barbaro”, un persiano per l’appunto. È Bagoas il protagonista del romanzo, prima favorito di Dario III per poi divenire l’ἐρώμενος (amato) del re macedone. Il romanzo uscì nel 1972 e fu sicuramente innovativo e molto avanti con i tempi dato che vi è una rappresentazione positiva e normalizzata dei rapporti omoerotici.
Mary Renault è in grado di calare il lettore nell’ottica e nella prospettiva dell’uomo antico senza i filtri della visione etica e politica della contemporaneità come troppo spesso avviene nei retelling odierni di vicende riguardanti l’antichità.
Il livello di inglese richiesto per questa lettura a mio parere è grossomodo un B2.
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Nicola - ニコラ
5.0 out of 5 stars Il romanzo più bello di Mary Renault
Reviewed in Italy on December 12, 2021
Ci sono libri che sono in grado di cambiarti la vita poiché riescono a farti vedere il mondo sotto una prospettiva diversa, talvolta addirittura stravolta.
“Il ragazzo Persiano” di Mary Renault è senza dubbio uno di questi.
Una biografia travolgente di uno dei personaggi storici più interessanti della storia dell’umanità: Alessandro Magno.
Una biografia insolita perchè il tutto è narrato in prima persona da un “barbaro”, un persiano per l’appunto. È Bagoas il protagonista del romanzo, prima favorito di Dario III per poi divenire l’ἐρώμενος (amato) del re macedone. Il romanzo uscì nel 1972 e fu sicuramente innovativo e molto avanti con i tempi dato che vi è una rappresentazione positiva e normalizzata dei rapporti omoerotici.
Mary Renault è in grado di calare il lettore nell’ottica e nella prospettiva dell’uomo antico senza i filtri della visione etica e politica della contemporaneità come troppo spesso avviene nei retelling odierni di vicende riguardanti l’antichità.
Il livello di inglese richiesto per questa lettura a mio parere è grossomodo un B2.
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Subhasis
5.0 out of 5 stars Never read a book like this
Reviewed in India on April 7, 2021
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Very rarely do I read books that are for mature audience. I prefer children's fantasy. But this book has changed everything for me. Fantasy is like the moon: beautiful, magestic, yet we only ever see one side of it. Mary Renault explores the other side. In her interpretation, our love of heroism becomes what Sigmund Freud called Penis Envy. Read this trilogy only if you are willing to give up your innocent fascination with fantasy. I had no idea this would happen. But I am okay with it. It was an experience of a lifetime.
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karl
5.0 out of 5 stars A dramatic account of Alexander the Great's life and his friendship with Hephaistion
Reviewed in Germany on February 1, 2021
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Such a grand depiction of Alexander's adult life perceived from the perspective of a close friend and lover - thrilling. You will not be able to stop reading! Absolutely great.
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Canada Crone
5.0 out of 5 stars One Of The finest Historical Novels Ever Written
Reviewed in Canada on December 21, 2016
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There has never been a better telling of the life of Alexander the Great. Mary Renault draws you into the life of the warrior king, as seen through the eyes of his servant and lover, Bagoas, so deeply that returning to the 21st Century is a horrible shock.
One person found this helpful
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