Christy English

Mary Renault and THE PRAISE SINGER

Monday, March 7th, 2011 | Mary Renault | 2 Comments

My favorite author of all time never wrote a word about Eleanor. She wrote of ancient Greece, and the way men lived there, the magic of a time that never would have lived for me had she not written of it.  I am revisiting Mary Renault’s THE PRAISE SINGER now, and I find myself as transported by the novel as I was when I first read it years ago. Her words, and her worlds, still live for me.  All writers hope for that.

“I shall leave my scrolls, like the potters cup and the sculptor’s marble, for what they’re worth. Marble can break; the cup is a crock thrown in the well; paper burns warm on a winter night. I have seen too much pass away. So when they come to me from King Hieron down, asking about the days before they were begotten, I tell them what deserves rememberance, even if it keeps me up when I crave for bed. The true songs are still in the minds of men.”