Book Review:

The Last of the Wine

By Mary Renault

Reviewed by Russ Lockwood

Pantheon, 1956, $?, ISBN?, 389 pages, hardback

Set in the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, the book follows young Alexis as he grows up in the city-state of Athens. His father, a nobleman, eventually goes off with the doomed expedition to Sicily, while he fights first around Athens, and then joins the Navy to fight on the sea.

Notable folks who have achieved lasting fame walk in and out of the narrative-- Socrates, Plato, etc. The Siege feels right, and the various small-scale skirmishes show imagination, though the prose flags at times. For fiction, it's not a bad introduction to classical Greek life or history.


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