Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer's Reviews > The Last of the Wine

With a wealth of delightful and well documented details Renault conjures up fifth century Athens more vividly and more truly than almost any other historical novel set in that period. In fact, I think it’s difficult to find any other book, fiction or non-fiction, that gives a better idea of the intricacies of the complex social structures and interactions of the Athenian upper class at the end of the fifth century BC.

The story is basically the story of the Peloponnesian War made personal, with the love of two men as the focal point. They share in some of the action, but most of the big events remain in the background, as between p. 259 and p. 260, where the narrator skips four years of adventures on the Athenian fleet under the command of Alkibiades, all but deciding the war in his favour. (Renault did not want to tell all this, because she had other interests, okay, fair enough, but one would think that her narrator Alexias would have been proud enough of his exploits. It seems unfair to me that Renault does not allow him to shine for us with his role in the most remarkable campaign in the war.)

I loved to read all this, because I love the setting. And it is all very well done. The question remains, however, as to the purpose and the urgency of the story. But perhaps this question is unfair.