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The Last of the Wine

A Virago Modern Classic
By Mary Renault
Series: Virago Modern Classics
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Brief Description
A VIVID, SWEEPING SAGA OF QUEER LOVE AND POLITICS IN ANCIENT GREECE, FROM THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION'Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing' DOUGLAS STUART'Arresting and beautiful and moving . . . decades ahead of its time' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKSYour love made me. Do not... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Combining the scholarship of a historian with the imagination of a novelist, Mary Renault masterfully brings the ancient world to life in this page-turning drama of the Peloponnesian War.

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A VIVID, SWEEPING SAGA OF QUEER LOVE AND POLITICS IN ANCIENT GREECE, FROM THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION

'Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing' DOUGLAS STUART

'Arresting and beautiful and moving . . . decades ahead of its time' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

Your love made me. Do not take it away; for without love I am a temple forsaken by its god

Athens and Sparta, the mighty city states of ancient Greece, have been locked together in conflict for a quarter of a century. Alexias the Athenian comes of age in these turbulent times, as the golden age fractures into uncertainty and chaos. No longer protected by his family's noble status, he is drawn to the controversial teachings of Socrates - and to another of the philosopher's young followers, Lysis.

The two young men form a passionate bond, becoming both friends and lovers. Together, they learn to hunt and to love, to debate and to wrestle, to grapple with family and loyalty. But all the while, fate leads Alexias to the moment he must stand alongside Lysis in the last great battle of the Peloponnesian War.

'A remarkable novel, vivid and moving . . . a glowing work of art' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

'Of her Greek fictions, The Last of the Wine [is] her most moving' EMMA DONOGHUE

Series: Virago Modern Classics

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780349018560

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 January 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Virago Press Ltd

Contributors:

  • Introduction by Charlotte Mendelson

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 30.0mm

Width: 126.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 320g

Pages: 416

Collections

2025 Best Sellers Best Sellers at Book Hero Classic Fiction Fiction General Fiction Historical Fiction In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Literary Fiction Mary Renault New Release Fiction Series: Virago Modern Classics

About the Author

Mary Renault (1905-1983) was born in London and educated at St Hughs, Oxford. She trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary, where she met her lifelong partner, Julie Mullard. Her first novel, Purposes of Love, was published in 1937. In 1948, after North Face won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa. There, Renault was able to write forthrightly about homosexual relationships for the first time - in her masterpiece, The Charioteer (1953), and then in her first historical novel, The Last of the Wine (1956). Renault's vivid novels set in the ancient world brought her worldwide fame. In 2010 Fire From Heaven was shortlisted for the Lost Booker of 1970.

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