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The Bull from the Sea

A Virago Modern Classic
By Mary Renault
Series: Virago Modern Classics
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Brief Description
Mary Renault is a shining light - HILARY MANTEL Mary Renault's portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent - MADELINE MILLER The sequel to The King Must Die. The Bull from the Sea continues the story of the hero Theseus after his return... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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The sequel to Mary Renault's classic The King Must Die, which continues the story of the mythological hero Theseus after his return from Crete.

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Mary Renault is a shining light - HILARY MANTEL Mary Renault's portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent - MADELINE MILLER The sequel to The King Must Die. The Bull from the Sea continues the story of the hero Theseus after his return from Crete.

Having freed the city of Athens from the terrible tribute demanded by the ruler of Knossosβ€”the sacrifice of noble youths and maidens to the appetite of the Labyrinth's monsterβ€”Theseus has returned home to find his father dead and himself the new king. But his adventures have only just begun: he still must confront the Amazons, capture their queen, Hippolyta, and face the tragic results of Phaedra's jealous rage.

Piecing together fragments of myth and ancient history, this thrilling retelling of the legend of Theseus brings to life a world in which heroes battled monsters and gods strode the earth.

An important and wonderful writer... she set a course into serious-minded, psychologically intense historical fiction that today seems more important than ever - Sam Jordison, Guardian

Series: Virago Modern Classics

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780349018584

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 July 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Virago Press Ltd

Contributors:

  • Introduction by Bettany Hughes

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 32.0mm

Width: 132.0mm

Height: 202.0mm

Weight: 240g

Pages: 304

Collections

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 Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat - SARAH WATERS The heavens say it begins with the death of the King . . . Alexander the Great, conqueror of an empire stretching from Greece to Egypt to India, is dead at the age of thirty-three. His only direct...
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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...
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