The Mask of Apollo - Softcover

Renault, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553242806 ISBN 13: 9780553242805

Publisher: Bantam Books, 1983

Synopsis

Nikeratos, an actor of ancient Greece, greatly admires and devotes himself to Dion, a student of Plato, who is determined to bring democracy to Syracuse

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Set in fourth-century B.C. Greece, The Mask of Apollo is narrated by Nikeratos, a tragic actor who takes with him on all his travels a gold mask of Apollo, a relic of the theater's golden age, which is now past. At first his mascot, the mask gradually becomes his conscience, and he refers to it his gravest decisions, when he finds himself at the center of a political crisis in which the philosopher Plato is also involved. Much of the action is set in Syracuse, where Plato's friend Dion is trying to persuade the young tyrant Dionysios the Younger to accept the rule of law. Through Nikeratos' eyes, the reader watches as the clash between the two looses all the pent-up violence in the city.

About the Author

Born in London as Eileen Mary Challans in 1905 and educated at the University of Oxford, Mary Renault trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary. It was there that she met her lifelong partner, fellow nurse Julie Mullard. After completing her training, Renault wrote her first novel, "Purposes of Love", in 1937. In 1948, after her novel"Return to Night"won an MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard immigrated to South Africa. There, Renault wrote the historical novels that would define her career. In 2006, Renault was the subject of a BBC 4 documentary, and her books, many of which remain in print on both sides of the Atlantic, are often sought after for radio and dramatic interpretation. In 2010, "Fire From Heaven"was shortlisted for the 1970 Lost Booker prize.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Publication date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553242806
• ISBN 13: 9780553242805
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 384