The Last of the Wine

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In The Last of the Wine, two young Athenians, Alexias and Lysis, compete in the palaestra, journey to the Olympic games, fight in the wars against Sparta, and study under Socrates. As their relationship develops, Renault expertly conveys Greek culture, showing the impact of this supreme philosopher whose influence spans epochs.

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: Kristi Z
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fascinating and eerily timely!
Review: Astounding literature, from a woman who lived her life in secrecy yet found a way to express her innermost thoughts through painstaking research and fascinating details. Marvelous language. I was very, very moved by this book and will read more.

Reviewer: Pammie
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Vivid Tale of Ancient, Tumultuous Greece
Review: This was a vivid tale of ancient, tumultuous Greece, in its most heroic but troubled time—told through the all-seeing eyes of a young man both student of Socrates and an Athenian citizen soldier.It helped me put in place the many disparate events and legendary figures of that famed time.However, author Mary Renault quite often described the protagonist’s feelings in terms (that may well have been in ancient philosophical terms I didn’t know—a problem I never noticed in Renault’s The King Must Die concerning not a philosopher but Theseus); sometimes in Last of the Wine I was confused about what point Renault was trying to make.Nonetheless, I really appreciate having read this book—one essentially enlightening and wonderful.

Reviewer: David Island
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Normal Young Men in Ancient Greece
Review: Keep in mind that this gorgeously written and touching story was first published in 1956 by Renault, an Oxford-educated British woman, dead now 25 years.”Last of the Wine” is much more than a coming of age tale, as we like to call some of these stories nowadays. Far from it. Yes, it is a gay love story, sans sex, a subtle and timeless and accurately portrayed romance between 2 beautiful young men in 5th Century B.C. Greece – thus, before Alexander. There’s a good bit of history and a lot of fun in meeting some of the incomparable ancients – an aging Socrates and a young Plato, and in hearing about others, Alkibiades, for one. If you manage to read Steven Pressfield and Renault, as well as others writing of this era, it all begins to make sense.Renault seems magically to understand perfectly love in its deepest sense between men and those touchy human aspects of love between anyone: possessiveness, jealousy, soft adoration, absence and longing, and the overwhelming desire to spend all one’s time with one’s love, to say nothing of comfortable easy silences and shared thoughts.The 2 primary characters, Alexis (the younger of the two by 6 years) and Lysis, are physical ideals and good to the core. They know how to enjoy the long-lost simple pleasures. I loved them both. She also grasps firmly the intricacies of family, of obligation and of the inevitable inscrutable conflict between father and son.”Last of the Wine” is as contemporary as your latest e-mail exchange with your partner or offspring. She writes with finesse and profundity. Consider these excerpts.Page 241. “It was a warm spring evening; one smelt the sea, and supper cooking on pinewood fires, and the scent of flowers upon the hillside; we sat in the doorway of our hut in the late sun, greeting friends as they passed.”Page 242. “The evening sun glowed like bronze upon the reed thatch of the roofs; here and there men were singing about the fires. I (Alexis) said in my heart, `Such things as these are the pleasures of manhood.'”Page 243. “But we sat a little longer; for as the sun sank, the moon had risen. Her light had mixed with the afterglow, and the hill behind the city was the colour of skins of lions.”Page 244. “‘Nothing will change, Alexis’ (Lysis speaking). `No that is false; there is change wherever there is life…. But what kind of fool would plant an apple-slip, to cut it down at the season when the fruit is setting? Flowers you can get every year, but only with time the tree that shades your doorway and grows into the house with each year’s sun and rain.'” As Adlai Stevenson once said, “Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job.” These young men had a firm grasp on reality.The story traces not only the rise of fledgling democracy but also its temporary demise. The build-up to Socrates’ eventual murder by authorities fearful of his teachings is compelling. The end of the story is both uplifting and sad.Renault’s “Notes” at the end of the book are insightful, the “Chronology Table” is helpful, and the map of “Greece and the Aegean” is a good anchor for orienting yourself to political and physical geography.Yes, it is fiction. Yes, the over-riding theme is a gay love story. And yes, it’s enthralling and gracious. Relax into the story, flow with its pace, learn from it, and read it with unabashed pleasure. Forget the homophobe reviewers who are falsely “offended” by the story (after, of course, they knowingly have read every word!).

Reviewer: A.C.E
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I was so sad when I finished it
Review: A stunning novel, a work of art. A rare novel where one travels with the character learning not only of ancient Greece, its rituals, customs, way of life among others , but also questioning human existence, morality, honor, all through the eyes of the protagonist Alexias.It took me a long time to read because I needed to live the book so to speak, and, I was so sad when I finished it, wishing it had been a series.Also to mention is the relationship of Alexias and Lysis, she writes the character’s relationship beautifully, showing them as they are: two people in love, having quarrels, missing each other, growing together. I truly enjoyed seeing their love blossom page after page and it brings the love between two men to the front. I can understand why this novel had such a huge impact on the gay community when it came out, and how consistent Mary is with her values on relationships be it same-sex or not: love and honor first, then sex- which is not to say sex is bad, just that between the love of two people there should be a higher ideal.Of course another point to bring out is how well researched the novel is, reading her Bio, one can see the amount of time and effort spent to do this correctly and she did succeed, bringing to life the everyday life of an ancient Athenian from then trivial things such as house chores, to being in the colonnade, the perfume shop, the drinking parties and the supper couches, posing for a sculptor, taking part in the Games.Her debate on the nature of democracy, honor, and tyranny is quite impressive, especially since she wrote it when it was a hard time in South Africa where she had emigrated. Even today these questions on morality and handling of politics ring true.Mary Renault did it again with this book, bringing Ancient Greece and its history to life with the realistic portrayals of Alcibiades, and Socrates, recreating what would have been like to have been part of his circle; to sit by him and debate from basic everyday questions to that of human existence.

Reviewer: Robbert Bosschart
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Every time I reread one of her masterpieces set in classical Greece -for I reread Mary Renault again and again- it amazes me anew how alive her stories are. She knows everybody, every place, every time, every myth, every emotion of that era she takes me into. She shows me what really happened there and then. She makes me feel and understand wonders.Of all the many books I have read on Antiquity over a span of 60+ years, none ever surpassed her. If you want to know why classical Greece still is important to our lives today, read awesome Mary Renault.

Reviewer: B.M.
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: When Mary Renault wrote “Last of the Wine” in 1956, there were very few depictions of male homosexuality in mainstream literature, and as a result she attracted a large gay audience. Sixty years later, the book is dated and its story of male partnerships sounds naive and very old-fashioned, while the central characters appear stiff and wooden, and I found myself unable to care about them. The discussions of philosophy in Golden Age Athens are too complicated for novices, and too superficial for experts; neither will find this aspect of the book satisfying.If you are a student in a survey class studying the evolving depiction of homosexuality in literature over the decades, you might find this book of interest. However, if you are looking for good plot development, well-rounded characters, and a realistic portrayal of male same-sex partnerships, you would be better advised to move on.

Reviewer: Hugh Gee
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I read this book first 40 years ago, once since, and now for a third time. I still think it’s one of the finest novels I’ve read, dignified in style, wise and moving. It evokes classical Greece like no other and has descriptions and dialogues that are unmatched, as far as I am concerned. It’s not a lightweight book; but it’s worth reading carefully and pondering. The way it brings Socrates to life alone is miraculous.

Reviewer: Ian Mackay
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a most rewarding book! We follow Alexias Son of Myron, from birth to death, and with him live through the Peloponnesian War and the extraordinary fall of Athens. We meet some of the main players of the time and get to understand a little of how the amazing advantages of Athens could be whittled away until she was on her knees before Sparta and the other cities.Socrates plays a powerful role in the story, as does his tragic failure with Alcibiades, star in almost every department of life, but using it all for self-vindication and self-advancement… in large part thanks to him, Athens makes a series of disastrous choices, from the sacking of Melos to the loss of two armies and most of her navy in an unprovoked attempt to conquer Syracuse. To top it off the execution of Socrates, obliquely foreshadowed towards the end of the story, is largely down to the fact that most people blamed him for the excesses of Alcibiades who had been his pupil.Besides the war with its ups and downs there is fascinating philosophical commentary on the dangers of both monarchy and democracy, and also on the nature of love. We tend to oversimplify both these issues today. Friendship between people of the same gender was idealised then, rather than being simply eroticised – it was more a question of a young man looking for an intimate role-model, and an older man looking for an intimate disciple – rather like a knight and his squire. Thanks to Socrates, Alexias and his elder friend set their hearts on chastity in their love. That they fail is felt as a sacrifice to human weakness by both of them… there is no hedonistic self-indulgence to it.Highly attractive characters are woven into the narrative: the young Plato for instance, Xenephon and others. Most attractive for me, was Phaedo, enslaved in the sack of Melos and then bought out from servitude in a brothel by disciples of Socrates, to become a brilliant philosopher with his own school at Ellis.I can’t recommend this too highly!!

Reviewer: Suzy W.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I read this book at least 50 years ago and have just reread it with enormous pleasure. Mary Renault really has a talent for immersing you in a lost civilisation so that you can easily imagine living in those times. The trick is really that she shows how little people have changed since then! A great read, informative and engrossing. Definitely recommend.

Price effective as of Mar 18, 2025 08:40:33 UTC

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