The Mask of Apollo: A Novel
by Mary Renault
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mary RenaultEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1988-02-12
ISBN: 0394751051
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of The Mask of Apollo: A Novel
Book Review: Life as art and art as life
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the things that make Mary Renault such a great historical novelist is that she opens doors you never thought existed and gets you wanting to explore and learn more. I had to read several Greek plays in high school but they were always kind of ho-hum until Renault brought them vibrantly to life in "The Mask of Apollo" in the character of Nikeratos, an Athenian actor in 4th-century BC Greece who learns his craft from the ground up and brings us onstage and backstage into his world of great drama. Nikeratos travels from Greece to Sicily and back, acting in plays by such immemorial dramatists as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and bringing life to his art and art into his life and the lives of those he interacts with. Parallel with the story of Nikeratos is the story of Dion of Syracuse, a real historical figure who successfully brought down the dictatorship of Dionysios the Younger, only to install his own dictatorship in its place. "The Mask of Apollo" brings to life historical figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Speusippos (an enigmatic character I would have liked to know more of) and many others that we only read about in history texts, and makes them become real and personal. She also makes us live in ancient Syracuse with its sights and sounds, its political intrigues and dangers. (Contrary to what one reviewer said, however, Renault gave only one line in passing to the Athenian defeat at Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War and the tragic aftermath; that was treated at length in "The Last of the Wine" but not in this book.) After finishing this book, I headed straight to the bookstore for a good translation of "The Bacchae" by Euripides, which I'd never heard of before Renault relates how brilliantly Nikeratos acts the leading role, and devoured it at one sitting. Renault does her readers a double favor: she not only gives them a gem of a book, she sends them on a treasure hunt to find some more.
Summary of The Mask of Apollo: A Novel
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.Historical Books
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