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The Praise Singer

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About this listen

Set in sixth-century Greece at the time of the Tyrants, the Persian Wars, and a great flowering of the arts, this novel takes the form of Simonides' memoirs, written in retirement in Sicily. The author was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and she also wrote The King Must Die.

©1978 Mary Renault (P)2015 Audible, Ltd Classics Historical Fiction Fiction Ancient History Ancient Greece

Critic reviews

"[Renault's] historical novels...are among the finest ever written." (The Washington Post Book World)
"A song of praise, a work of love, a serene, deliberate book, full of wisdom, rich in character, incident and description." (Wall Street Journal)
All stars
Most relevant
Mary Renault's ability to bring ancient Greece to life never fails - I found the whole novel engaging, even with my attention difficulties. The narrator did a fantastic job with subtle voice changes for the different characters and giving that little bit of spice to every sentence. Wonderful experience all round.

wonderful

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The story is set at the end of the sixth century in Ancient Greece, and follows the life of the ancient poet Simonides from his childhood on the stern island Keos until the famous tyrannicide in Athens.

The book gives a wonderful sense of how the ancient poets worked, when the whole catalog of works was memorised, and the poetry was not spoken but put to music and sung! It also gives a look into other sixth century BCE hot topics such as pottery fashions, the casting of statues, and the latest political trend: tyrants.

Renault makes the main character Simonides likeable and fun - and amusingly quite stubbornly unwilling to believe his charming patron of his increasingly obvious misdeeds.

The world and the psychology of the characters are both intricate and real. The language has the beautiful starkness Renault used in her Classic novels, the recurring themes of mankind’s nobility and its opposite the baseness is as moving as always.

Are there no flaws then? Well, no. There are even a few interesting and likeable women in the story - albeit relatively minor characters.

Beautifully performed! Also extra points for including the Author’s Notes!

Poetry, pottery and political assassinations

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