Review of Mary Renaults The King Must Die

Justin James McCorkle March 4th 2000 Review of Mary Renault’s The King Must Die Mary Renault tells a wonderfully dashing tale of the classic Hero Theseus, who was said to have lived shortly before the time of the Trojan War. Although the book is very appealing to me the author did not follow the classic legends in several aspects. This can be a good technique and does bring newness to the story, however some departures …

…in these few examples, such as the changing of the sail, I have to argue that the story should not have been changed. In Renault’s story the many details that have been added give the tale much more style and content in most instances. Mary Renault wrote a remarkably believable tale of ancient Athenian Hero, and in many ways did a better job than the ancients in bringing the story to life for masses.