The Persian Boy

A Novel of Alexander the Great

By: Mary Renault

Narrated by: Roger May

Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

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 is sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but finds freedom with Alexander the Great after the Macedon army conquers 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.

©1972 Mary Renault (P)2014 Audible Studios

Critic reviews

"Mary Renault's portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent, infused at every turn with her life-long passion for the Classics. Her characters live vividly both in their own time, and in ours." (Madeline Miller) 

"All my sense of the ancient world - its values, its style, the scent of its wars and passions - comes from Mary Renault. I turned to writing historical fiction because of something I learned from Renault: that it lets you shake off the mental shackles of your own era, all the categories and labels, and write freely about what really matters to you." (Emma Donoghue)

History Brought to Vivid Life

Mary Renault wrote eight historical novels set in ancient Greece. All eight are both brilliantly literary and deeply rooted in historical scholarship, and despite that are also just plain great reads. Of the eight, at least two are generally considered to be masterpieces: "The King Must Die," a realistic portrayal of archaic Greece and the legends of Theseus; and "The Persian Boy," the second book of her trilogy centering on the personality and achievements of Alexander the Great.

The complete Alexander trilogy is now available on Audible. "Fire from Heaven," covering Alexander's life from early childhood to the death of his father Philip of Macedon, is a third-person narrative, sometimes dense but completely alive. The final book, "Funeral Games," deals with the aftermath of Alexander's death and the partitioning of his empire. It is also a third-person narrative, and is weakened by a lack of focus--there are many players in these funeral games--and by being of necessity set in a time of great confusion.

Between these two lies "The Persian Boy," a first-person narrative by Bagoas, a young Persian of noble birth whose family is massacred in the wake of a palace coup. Bagoas, a child of transcendent beauty, is spared death but becomes a spoil of war, sold to a slave dealer who has him gelded. As a eunuch, the enslaved youth's beauty and nobility eventually bring him to the attention of the rich and powerful, and he is taken into the royal household as a body servant and "pleasure boy" to the Great King Darius, soon to go down in history for his defeat at the hands of the young Alexander of Macedon.

A Persian eunuch named Bagoas is in fact briefly mentioned in contemporary biographies of Alexander. From this minor mention Renault creates an enthralling narrator. Presented as a gift to the conqueror, Bagoas becomes Alexander's squire, interpreter, companion, lover, and advisor as the army traverses the Persian empire. There are battles throughout the book, but the emphasis is on Alexander the man, not the general. Bagoas loves and idolizes Alexander, blind to the hubris in the conqueror's character, a flaw that becomes more evident as the narrative progresses to its bitter conclusion (it is no spoiler, I think, to say that Alexander died young).

"The Persian Boy" is a remarkable vision of two cultures, each of which considers the other to be barbaric, and of an Alexander who transcends these prejudices. He wishes not so much to conquer as to meld, taking as his example Cyrus the Great, who merged the Persians and the Medes into the most powerful empire of its day.

I first read this book as a teenager, and have re-read it a number of times since. As I learned more ancient history, I appreciated "The Persian Boy" more and more. There are of course other and far less flattering interpretations of Alexander's character, but I confess Bagoas's viewpoint is the one that has stuck with me.

One final note, or perhaps warning. Although there is no explicit description of sexual acts in "The Persian Boy," Bagoas's gelded state and training in the arts of "the inner room" are intrinsic to the book. This is a culture (in fact two cultures) in which male bisexuality is regarded as normal, and that Bagoas and Hephaistion were Alexander's lovers is presented as simple and straightforward fact (Alexander also marries the daughter of Darius and the Bactrian princess Roxanne and fathers children on both of them). If this aspect of Hellenic culture makes you uncomfortable, I'd reluctantly recommend skipping this book. You might try "The King Must Die" instead, which I hope will come to Audible in the not-to-distant future (and is it too much to hope that Dan Stevens or Nicholas Boulton might agree to narrate it?)

The Persian Boy begins with a bang

Would you listen to The Persian Boy again? Why?

Yes!

What does Roger May bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He is an excellent reader

Who was the most memorable character of The Persian Boy and why?

Bagoas

Any additional comments?

Bagoas, the Persian boy, and point of view narrator of Alexander’s life in Persia, Egypt, the Middle East, and India, begin with a bang. The 10 year old boy, son of a minor Persian noble, is whiteness to his father’s betrayal then murder, his mother’s suicide, the loss of his sisters, followed by his enslavement by the killers leading to worse. He is bought by a jeweler as a servant for his wife. As time passes, when the jeweler falls on hard times his owner begins to pimp him out for extra income. The boy comes to the notice of a royal courtesan who buys him from the jeweler and trains him in the arts of pleasuring the new Master, Darius III, before he enters service. It is then that be begins to tell the tale of Alexander as he crosses to Asia and defeats his owner Darius in several battles. The plot then takes a few twists and turns until at 15 years old he enters service with Alexander the Great. Alexander will not have him as a bedmate or see him as property simply to use as he will. The boy, now man by the standards of the age, first serves as a valet and chamber man, then as an advisor on Persian custom and manors on his new subjects, and finally wins the place of loved one from Alexander. From that vantage point he offers a unique fictional prospective to tell the story of Alexander from his conquests of lands including western India, his marriages, and his hopes and dreams of fusing Greek culture unto a Persian Empire he is to govern, and betrayal assassination plots and the death of the man nearest to his heart. All this is told through the eyes of faithful Bagoas up through Alexander’s death in Babylon at age 33. What happens next falls to the last book in the trilogy Funereal Games.

As a modern people there are aspects of this book that are disturbing. One must suspend our modern moral disgust and remember that this is an age where slaves had no rights, might made right, a male achieved manhood at and 15 or 16 unless he killed a man in battler at an earlier age. All life’s stages are accelerated as life expectancy was around 40, if you were lucky. At this stage there were no Christian values as Christ will not be born for another 300 plus years. The Jews were grateful to Alexander as he allowed free worship at the Temple. This book is set in a brawling polytheistic world of tribal loyalties, blood feuds, forbidden loves, where our norms simply do not apply.

For action and excitement with a slab dash of history this book is great. There is enough heroic action and daring do for any reader. There is also enough vision of uniting disparate peoples into a harmonious empire under Alexander’s fair and just kingship to make it inspiring.

Deeply Enriching

Every chance I got to listen to this book was an absolute treat. Not just as an escape, but because I could see myself in Bagoas, which is hard for a young gay man. It's rare one finds fiction with a gay protagonist/narrator that is truly well-written, and what's more, it has much to teach about history as well. It beautifully illustrates the presence of pre-modern same-sex love in one of history's most revered figures, as well as it's tolerance among Greek, Persian and Indian societies (all before the influence of Abrahamic religions). It's not treated as a focal point per say, but rather as a (well-researched) fact of life for our main characters. It's so rare to find that the novel almost felt like fantasy. Which I love. I only wish there was more.

Simply Excellent.

Flawless narration, superb narrative and exquisite attention to the craft of writing riveting historical fiction.

The Eunuch Who Loved Alexander

Whereas Fire from Heaven (1969) tells the story of Alexander’s youth via a variety of third-person narration point of view characters, many of whom, like Alexander, Philip, and Hephaistion are martial men of violent action, The Persian Boy (1972) is the first-person story of Bagoas, an aristocratic Persian scion who was sold into slavery and gelded at age ten and then trained in the arts of giving pleasure to serve the Persian king Darius. Needless to say, although he is referred to as “the Persian boy,” his experiences rob him of his boyhood and leave him mature beyond his years. Bagoas follows the rumors and reports about Alexander, who, after his father Philip’s assassination, came to Asia with his army and began conquering the Persian empire. As the story develops, Bagoas, who says that “When we serve the great, they become our destiny,” finds himself serving Alexander.

By having a eunuch from the culture the great conqueror is conquering tell Alexander’s story, Renault focuses her novel on cross-cultural intercourse. This is sexual, as in the relationship between Alexander and Bagoas, Alexander and his Bactrian wife Roxane, Alexander’s generals and the Persian noblewomen they married, and Alexander’s soldiers and the Persian (and Sogdian and Indian etc.) women they had kids with, and so on. But it is also general, as in the fusion of Macedonian and Grecian elements with Asian (especially Persian) elements. This was not an easy marriage of differences, as many old school Macedonians scorned the Persians as effete, gawdy barbarians and hated Alexander’s adoption of Persian customs (especially prostrating oneself before the king but also including his relationship with the eunuch Bagoas). Alexander faces more than one assassination attempt or mutiny. For his part, Bagoas at first finds many Macedonian customs barbaric or unseemly (e.g., their casual nudity, their use of rivers to wash bodies and clothes, their privies without privacy, their coarse food and manners, their lack of respect for officers and rulers). Although much of the novel deals with culture shock, however, still more of it deals with cross-cultural communication and mutual influences: “Two good wines blended to make a better.” There are scenes featuring interpreters and language learning, conflation of different cultures’ deities (e.g., Dionysius and Krishna or Zeus and Zoraster), and Alexander modeling his rule on that of the famous former Persian king/conqueror/unifier/hero Cyrus, or adopting Persian royal dress, or recruiting Persians into his bodyguard and even into the elite unit of Companions, or having an army of 30,000 Persian boys trained in Macedonian tactics and weapons, or taking under his wing boys born to Macedonian soldiers and Persian and other Asian women after their fathers returned to Macedonia. Renault’s Alexander is no bigot, saying things like, “To hate excellence is to hate the gods. One must salute it everywhere” (no matter in what person or culture or race it is found).

At one point Bagoas thinks to Alexander, “You have brought more life than death into the world,” and for Renault Alexander’s conquests (which did of course result in many deaths, especially when a city or satrap rebelled against him after having surrendered to and allied with him) were not products of blood or power lust or racism, xenophobia, or nationalism, but more of a curiosity to see the whole world and a desire to unify its peoples into a single harmonious culture drawing on their best parts.

Though she writes no graphic sex scenes, one strong element of her Alexander trilogy is the way in which Renault depicts natural and deep homosexual love, particularly that between Hephaistion and Alexander in the first book and between Bagoas and Alexander in the second. Bagoas thinks heartfelt things, like “There is nothing like giving joy to the one you love,” and “What can compare to giving comfort to the one you love?”

Bagoas is telling the story from decades in the future when he’s living in Alexandria and Alexander is long dead. This recalls Count Belisarius (1938) by Robert Graves, in which a eunuch first-person narrator tells the story of a military man of action. In addition to exploring love and gender, etc., Renault uses the narrative strategy to avoid describing Alexander’s famous battles like Issus in first-hand eye-witness real time, because Bagoas is no soldier and isn’t present at most of them. Instead, he hears what happened from various sources and then relays the information to us. Bagoas happens to be in Babylon when the second big battle between Alexander and Darius is fought nearby, so he is able to tell us first hand about the preparations, the soldiers and armies and support staff and so on, and the post-battle chaos in the city, and much later he describes part of Alexander’s siege of a fortified town in India, but that’s about it. In short, readers who want detailed and exciting accounts of Alexander’s battles in Asia will be disappointed. Readers who want vivid and moving accounts of Alexander in his prime from the point of view of the Persian pleasure eunuch who became his lover will be engrossed.

Renault wrote vivid historical novels that transport the reader to the distant past through vivid details and empathetic imagination for how people in any time think and feel. Her descriptive writing is concise and vivid:

“The dead lay everywhere, like some strange fruit of the land, darkened with ripeness against the pale withered grass and scrub. A faint sweet stench was starting. It was hot.”

“The room smelled of sex and sandalwood, with a tang of salt from the sea.”

“Nothing could have made her anything but hideous, yet even a clay lamp is beautiful when its light shines at dusk.”

“…smiling and showing teeth like peeled almonds.”

There is appalling cruelty in the novel, as when Bagoas’ father’s nose, ears, and then head are cut off, or as when Bagoas is castrated. But Bagoas is a gentle, thoughtful, and empathic person. If, as the magi say, “There is the light and the dark, and all things that live have the power to choose,” Bagoas and his Alexander choose the light (and love and life). Thus, Alexander says, “One must live as if it would be forever and as if each day were the last.” Thus, the last line of the novel reads, “the embalmers filled him with everlasting myrrh.”

Heartfelt Story on an Immense Scale

An excellent and interesting experience from start to finish. The Persian Boy's descriptions of people, places, and events are immaculate, shedding some light on some of the most important figures in history, as well as the epic journeys that shaped them. Our protagonist is not one of these men, he is a little known yet relatable and sympathetic character; who goes on his own journey, eventually influencing the events that would shape the world as we know it.

The performance by Roger May is fantastic and thoroughly engaging, as each character is given a voice of their own.

If you have any interest in Alexander and his empire, the lands and people he conquered, or the story of a loyal eunuch finding his true purpose, pick this book up.

Well, I knew it was fiction

but hoped there would be more history. Mostly a pleasant enough story, but not gripping or enlightening. I prefer more fact in ostensibly historical literature. That aside, I suppose fans of historical fantasy would love this book, as it was well written and the narrator was easy to listen to. I guess it would be better for me personally to just avoid fiction. Such literature always seems to be lacking something.

Great story beautifully told

Alexander was a historical phenomenon but the story bring some to life in a way in which you never thought of. How is interpersonal relationships affect his decisions and the history around them the story is wonderfully narrated can't recommend it highly enough

A fine journey into the ancient world.

A thoroughly transfixing novel. I could not stop listening! Beautifully and convincingly read by Roger May.

Stick with it

This novel is really good. If you are a fan of this history I highly recommend this book

The Persian Boy

This has quickly become one of my favourite books of all time; and my favourite historical novel, too. Renault paints a picture of the past that is totally believable and wonderful; and she writes with such concision and preciseness, it’s super simple to read and impossible to drag yourself away.

This is the story of Alexander the Great as told through the eyes of hist most trusted and devoted lover, Bagoas, a eunuch who was the favourite of Darius III of Persia when he was overthrown and then became the attendant of Alexander. 20 hours of fantastic, ephemeral listening. I was weeping when it was over. Bagoas removed himself from history so we shall never know what happened to him.

This is the second in a trilogy but is perhaps Mary Renault’s seminal novel. It is very much about love and devotion in a world where same sex love was not a subject of controversy but an accepted and encouraged thing. And for her wide gay readership, this book was quite likely a lifeline. I wish I knew about this book when I was younger and going through the personal hell of figuring out my own sexuality. But they have a stronger role now: they validate that love and that love is the finest art.

A five star performance of a five star novel. I can’t wait to read more of Renault’s oeuvre.

History fleshed out.

What a wonderful gift, to be able to flesh out historical characters in such a convincing way! Excellent narration, too.

enthralling

enjoyed every minute I read it first when I was in my twenties now over 70 I have enjoyed someone else read it to me, wonderful 😀

Great!

Great book. I need to write 13 more words to submit this, but my advise would be to just give it a listen.

Lovely story

Gorgeous story, enjoyed that very much. Well narrated too. Last hour was a slog. But overall well worth the time.

Intriguing

Excellent fictional biography of Alexander,seen through Bagoas' eyes. Great detail although Bagoas' adoration I found irritating at times,otherwise a very enjoyable read.

Historical fiction from the perspective of Bagoas

Padding out what we know of the achievements of Alexander the Great from the imagined perspective of Bagoas, the Eunuch "inherited" from the Persian king whom he defeated. Enjoyable and well narrated. The only annoyance for me was the pronunciation of bier to rhyme with buyer.

great

Well I cried even though I knew what was coming. this was great. so consuming and heartbreaking.

Thoroughly enjoyable

The first novel from Mary Renault I have tried. Thoroughly enjoyed it and intend to try a few more. Roger May did a wonderful job of narrating. I
I recommend it

masterful

Beautifully written. Intensely involving and engaging and the ancient world comes to life. The descriptions of love and loving actions and the acceptance of fate were standouts. For me, a masterpiece
Roger May is superb at creating the different voices heard and his pacing gives a sense of authority and confidence to the story.