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Fire from Heaven

A Novel of Alexander the Great: A Virago Modern Classic
By Mary Renault
Series: Virago Modern Classics
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Brief Description
'The Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat' SARAH WATERS 'The Alexandriad is one of the twentieth century's most unexpectedly original works of art' GORE VIDAL In the first novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary... Read More
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In the first novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly imagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend.

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'The Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat' SARAH WATERS 'The Alexandriad is one of the twentieth century's most unexpectedly original works of art' GORE VIDAL In the first novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly imagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend.

Alexander's beauty, strength, and defiance were apparent from birth, but his boyhood honed those gifts into the makings of a king. His mother and father, Olympias and King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son's loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle. Hephaistion's love taught him trust, while Aristotle's tutoring provoked his mind and Homer's Iliad fuelled his aspirations. At age twelve, he killed his first man in battle; at sixteen, he became regent; at eighteen, commander of Macedon's cavalry; and by the time his father was murdered, Alexander's skills had grown to match his fiery ambition.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 1970 LOST BOOKER PRIZE. INTRODUCED BY TOM HOLLAND. 'This is not just a novel: it's also the best imagining we are ever likely to have of a man who tore up history' EMILY WILSON, GUARDIAN 'The Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the twentieth century' ANTONIA SENIOR, THE TIMES

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780349018607

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 July 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Virago Press Ltd

Contributors:

  • Introduction by Tom Holland

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 32.0mm

Width: 126.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 351g

Pages: 448

Collections

Ancient & Classical History Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Mary Renault 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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  • The Bull from the Sea
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  • The Persian Boy
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