The Last of the Wine
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| The Last of the Wine | |
 Vintage Books edition 1975 |
|
| Author | Mary Renault |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Longman, Green & Co, London; Pantheon, New York |
| Publication date | 1956 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 350pp (1958 hardback); 400pp (2001 paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN-13: 978-0375726811 (2001 Vintage paperback) |
The Last of the Wine is Mary Renault's first novel set in Ancient Greece, the setting that would become her most important arena. The novel was published in 1956 and is the second of her works to feature male homosexuality as a major theme. The book is a convincing portrait of Athens at the close of the Golden Age and the end of the Peloponnesian War with Sparta.
[edit] Plot summary
The first person narrator is Alexias, a noble Athenian youth, who becomes a noted beauty in the city and a champion runner. The novel suggests that young male Athenians were treated almost like modern debutantes and wooed by older men seeking to be their lovers; in fact, in a memorable passage, Alexias' father, Myron, himself a former beauty and champion athlete, writes his son before leaving Athens for the Sicilian Expedition. The father imparts to the son the traits he should seek in a lover - qualities like honor, loyalty and courage. However, the father also warns the son not to become involved with women - he is much too young. The teenager Alexias eventually falls in love with Lysis, a man in his 20's, who is a champion pankratiast and a student of Socrates. The core of the novel is the relationship between the two, following their life together in sport, peace and war.
Socrates also figures prominently, as both men become his students and his philosophy is much discussed. Also characterized in the novel are Plato and several figures from his Dialogues who were Socrates' students. Another historical figure who figures in the story, albeit mostly off-stage, is Alcibiades, the Athenian general who flees Athens on a charge of sacrilege and sells his services to other city-states, finally becoming a general serving Sparta and thus becoming partly responsible for Athens' destruction.
Lysis falls in love with and gets married to a woman who sees Alexias favorably and encourages the continuation of her husband's relationship with him. By then Athens has been defeated by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War and Lysis takes part in the democratic rebellion of Thrasybulus against the Spartan-imposed tyrannical regime of Athens and is killed in battle. Alexias takes Lysis' widow under his protection. He then meets Aster, a boy of exceptional beauty. The book ends with the postscript that the story is being told by Alexias' grandson, also named Alexias.
[edit] Major themes
The Last of the Wine discusses the mores and culture of Ancient Greece, including symposia (drinking parties), the treatment of women, the importance of athletic, military and philosophical training among young men, marriage customs, and daily life in war and peace.
