Customer Reviews

The Masks of Mary Renault: A Literary Biography

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After reading this book I must say that Ms. Zilboorg certainly has included much speculation and an active would-be psychologists' imagination. Unfortunately there is not a clear grasp of her subject, and in fact there is much here that leads one astray from the real Mary Renault and her life. I cannot recommend this book to anyone who has a genuine appreciation for Ms. Renault, and urge those who do to persue the excellent and informative book "Mary Renault, A Biography",
by David Sweetman; someone who really 'knows' her.

There's something about Mary that's clearly missing when a "literary" biography doesn't even contain complete listing of the subject's works, much less a synopsis of each that puts it into a context. Rather than follow the interwoven themes of Renault's work and her life in a logical and sequential manner, Zilboorg has compiled a collection of psychobabble essays rich with quotes from some of Renaults work, citations from other sources, and superficial observations straight from her own psyche.

I bought this book for an article I was working on to commemorate the 50th anniversary of "The Last of the Wine." It was a waste of my time and money. The only insight I got was into the state of academic writing at Cambridge these days.

Robbyh777 is as right today as he/she was five years ago... if you want an interesting and helpful biography of this remarkable writer, go to David Sweetman's "Mary Renault, A Biography." My apologies to anyone who bought this book between the time I did and my getting around to writing this.