When it comes to historical fiction, there are few works that are truly transcendent, particularly for ancient times. Salammbô, by Gustave Flaubert, is one—I, Claudius, another—Geraldine Brooks is a truly amazing and talented author—but those are a short list for a genre I’ve read possibly 200 to 300 works for. Of this short list, there is one relatively unknown book which deserves a grand place: The Persian Boy.
“It takes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior.”–The Atlantic Monthly
The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.
The Persian Boy kept up an incredible tension, and is one of the truest, subtlest renderings of character I’ve actually enjoyed. Where most first person narratives struggle to maintain a voice for their narrating character, or succumb to cheap ploys in an attempt to force you to read their character in the author’s light, Bagoas’ voice is effortless, polished, near-perfect. From the first line he comes across as a fully-realized character.
I immensely respected Mary Renault’s handling of The Persian Boy’s setting. She kept up a lovely fog-of-war (a technique in which one hints at a whole world without necessarily showing it all concretely), keeping the reader in the time period without overwhelming them with needless detail. The entire ancient world was visible, if only in flashes and glimpses.
My one issue with this novel was that one stayed at times a bit too firmly in Bagoas’ head, and yet the novel would have suffered if we hadn’t seen the happenings through his unique perspective.
The Persian Boy is worth your time. I encourage you to pick up a copy post-haste.