The Persian Boy
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First published in 1972, The Persian Boy is Mary Renault’s portrait of Alexander the Great’s final years, told through the eyes of Bagoas, a young Persian eunuch whose life is transformed by the Macedonian conquest of his homeland. Once a favourite at the court of King Darius, Bagoas is brought into Alexander’s household, where he becomes the conqueror’s companion and lover. As Alexander’s armies advance through Persia and beyond, Bagoas witnesses the intrigues, loyalties and rivalries surrounding the king, while offering an intimate view of a man whose ambition reaches far beyond the limits of his empire.
Renault’s meticulous knowledge of the ancient world is matched by her sensitivity to private feeling, as the novel explores love, power, cultural identity and the cost of conquest. By placing a Persian voice at the centre of a story usually told by its conquerors, she gives the familiar history of Alexander a strikingly different perspective. The second novel in her Alexander trilogy, following Fire from Heaven and preceding Funeral Games, The Persian Boy is among her most celebrated explorations of the emotional and political complexities of the ancient world.
From the book
“It is a true saying, that men don’t know till too late when they have been well off.”
— Mary Renault, The Persian Boy
On The Persian Boy
“Bagoas is a brilliant narrator. Rendered unreliable by his passion, he is always believable and sympathetic.”
— Antonia Senior, The Times