15th out of 697 books
—
867 voters
The Charioteer
by
Mary Renault
After enduring an injury at Dunkirk during World War II, Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans’ hospital in England to convalesce. There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. As they find solace and companionship together in the idyllic surroundings of the hospital, their friendship blooms into a discreet, chaste romance....more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
May 13th 2003
by Vintage
(first published 1953)
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Wow. Can I just write a series of adjectives for my review? Beautiful, evocative, thought provoking, powerful, tense, understated....
No that isn't actually helping, is it?
Review later. When I can mash all this down into a few paragraphs, or maybe when my mind can stop circling around seeing something different in this book on each cycle.
Easy 5 stars.
-----------
Actual review:
Awesome book. It deserves a better cover than that weird Star Trekky one. Who on earth came up with that awful thing?
I don...more
No that isn't actually helping, is it?
Review later. When I can mash all this down into a few paragraphs, or maybe when my mind can stop circling around seeing something different in this book on each cycle.
Easy 5 stars.
-----------
Actual review:
Awesome book. It deserves a better cover than that weird Star Trekky one. Who on earth came up with that awful thing?
I don...more
Mary Renault is one of those authors for whom I was tempted to give 5 stars to all of her books, because I enjoyed them so much. But in the interests of maintaining standards (Hi Betsy!), I will give 5 stars to "The Charioteer", a book probably 50 years ahead of its time, but go ahead and recommend all of her historical fiction anyway. With perhaps "The Mask of Apollo" and "The King must Die" being my favorites among her remaining books.
Shame on me! When I first heard of Mary Renault and her gay novels, I immediately assumed that because they were written in the 1950’s and by a woman that they were bound to be bad. Shame, shame, shame!
I stand duly chastised. And somewhat in awe of Mary Renault. She really gets the whole living in fear and shame thing, the way it distorts your life, causes you to doubt yourself, the overly sensitive panic that “They” somehow know. She never comes out to hit us on the head with this. She just de...more
I stand duly chastised. And somewhat in awe of Mary Renault. She really gets the whole living in fear and shame thing, the way it distorts your life, causes you to doubt yourself, the overly sensitive panic that “They” somehow know. She never comes out to hit us on the head with this. She just de...more
My least favorite thing about this book reporting business is choosing the star rating. I seriously get ulcers trying to quantify my personal, subjective response to each book I've read. Was it just "okay"? Did I "like it" or "really like it"? Part of my problem is that I've resolved from the beginning to be incredibly stingy with my five-star ratings. I've only given five stars to books that I feel have affected my sense of self and relation to the world on some profound and fundamental level,...more
Aug 14, 2007
Falkor
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of romance, esp. male/male romance; people interested in pre-Stonewall gay life
Shelves:
fiction,
20th-century
Laurie O'Dell is seriously wounded during the early days of World War II. While recuperating in an English hospital, he is entangled in a love triangle. On one side is Andrew, a pious, naive young conscientious objector who works in the hospital as an orderly; on the other is Ralph, an old school friend who, despite having many affairs with men and women while traveling the world in the navy, still harbors strong feelings for Laurie. Laurie is paralyzed with indecision. He can have a passionate...more
Nobody has written better about gay love than Mary Renault. This novel is her masterpiece. It tells the story of Laurie, a young soldier who finds himself confined in a hospital during the 2nd World War, after nearly dying in battle. While convalescing, he meets and falls in love with a young man, Andrew, who refused to fight because of his faith; but he also runs into a man from his past - someone he looked up to when he went to boarding school. The novel explores the division that occurs in La...more
My heart. Is it still there? Because I feel like someone tore it out and stomped on it.
I stayed up way later than I usually do, last night, to finish this, because I couldn't wait any longer. The intense and emotional turmoil inside of me started with Andrew's letter and followed through to the end.
It wasn't until I finished, and turned off the lights to go to sleep, that I realized what I had been holding in. And I cried for a few minutes: for the story, for the beautiful writing, for the chara...more
I stayed up way later than I usually do, last night, to finish this, because I couldn't wait any longer. The intense and emotional turmoil inside of me started with Andrew's letter and followed through to the end.
It wasn't until I finished, and turned off the lights to go to sleep, that I realized what I had been holding in. And I cried for a few minutes: for the story, for the beautiful writing, for the chara...more
at the start, an overwhelming sadness cloaked over me as i settled (and as i ponder it thereafter, it hovers still) to endeavor this voyage; pacing the movement, letting the words paint the picture; so many words unspoken . . . . . and wasn’t it better of it in the end? a relentless melancholy of what was to be, like wet wool, enveloped me in misery. i wished it never end; to go on and on but never come to finish, for never want to learn more of what fate must, surely, bring to be for these soul...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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In this novel, Mary Renault departs from her usual setting of Classical Greece to tell the story of a young gay British soldier on medical leave during World War II. I was at first skeptical about Renault writing a novel in a more modern setting, but the straightforward prose and austere beauty that has leant so much to her Greek novels works to her advantage here, giving true voices to her soldiers. It's a quiet book, with the characters' sexuality given an important but subtle place, unlike wh...more
The Charioteer is a sympathetic portrait of the love triangle between three men who meet and fall in love in post-war London. The protagonist, Laurie Odell, was severely wounded during the battle of Dunkirk, and the novel explores his journey towards recovery. While in hospital north of London, Laurie meets Andrew, a Quaker indentured to the hospital due to his status as a conscientious objector. (Tell me you've read this, secretlybronte). The two men strike up a sweetly innocent and sexless rom...more
Dec 29, 2011
K.Z. Snow
added it
I can't possibly rate this book, which I found tedious and intriguing, incomprehensible and brilliant. And not altogether satisfying. Leaves me in kind of a bind, eh?
The early mid-century British colloquialisms tripped me up in virtually every paragraph. I barely had time to recover from one before another two or three came rolling along. They weren't conducive to a smooth read. Characters' nicknames were somewhat easier to digest; I've heard a few of them before. But when Laurie, Spuddy, Binky,...more
The early mid-century British colloquialisms tripped me up in virtually every paragraph. I barely had time to recover from one before another two or three came rolling along. They weren't conducive to a smooth read. Characters' nicknames were somewhat easier to digest; I've heard a few of them before. But when Laurie, Spuddy, Binky,...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Oh dear god. I spent the last hour tearing frantically through the last 50 pages of Mary Renault's The Charioteer and now I'm so endlessly relieved, I have no words. I was actually sobbing just now because, god. This book.
This was so, so beautiful.
To think I might never have read it - I don't care how melodramatic it sounds, but I discovered this book by pure accident, because I was looking for stuff on Alexander the Great because I have been interested in Ancient Greek lately because I liked t...more
This was so, so beautiful.
To think I might never have read it - I don't care how melodramatic it sounds, but I discovered this book by pure accident, because I was looking for stuff on Alexander the Great because I have been interested in Ancient Greek lately because I liked t...more
I bought this book after reading The Dark Horse by Josh Lanyon. In that story the main character is an actor who is hoping to be chosen for the role of Laurie in a film adaptation of "The Charioteer". The story draws some parallels between the characters of Sean and Dan in The Dark horse and Laurie and Ralph in The Charioteer. I thought that perhaps I ought to read The Charioteer, especially after Josh Lanyon has mentioned it quite a few times since as being a great book.
The book is set in the 2...more
The book is set in the 2...more
It's impossible for me to rate certain books objectively, because of the life-changing impact they had on me.
I read The Charioteer in 1976, when I was 13. I knew I was different, but not in a way that bore mentioning or even secret acknowledgement in the ulta-macho Greece of that time. The only gay man I was aware of was a guy, who sold feather dusters around the centre of Athens; he was campy, outspoken, mocked, and it scared me that I might be like him.
Even though I didn't understand all the...more
I read The Charioteer in 1976, when I was 13. I knew I was different, but not in a way that bore mentioning or even secret acknowledgement in the ulta-macho Greece of that time. The only gay man I was aware of was a guy, who sold feather dusters around the centre of Athens; he was campy, outspoken, mocked, and it scared me that I might be like him.
Even though I didn't understand all the...more
Wow! This book was over my head at times. I wish I could have understood everything that was said, and all the things left unsaid. But I understood enough to know it was brilliant. It is the kind of book that must be read slowly and more than once to benefit from it.
It was like reading about the evolution of man with Andrew, Laurie, and Ralph representing the various stages of development, or for followers of Freud, they were representing the id, ego, and super-ego. At least, that is my take on...more
It was like reading about the evolution of man with Andrew, Laurie, and Ralph representing the various stages of development, or for followers of Freud, they were representing the id, ego, and super-ego. At least, that is my take on...more
I've always loved Mary Renault's Ancient Greece novels, particularly her Alexander trilogy. She's such a wonderful writer - her portrayal of the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion always particularly touches me - and now I have to add another masterpiece to that list.
This novel is apparently quite a landmark in gay literature, published in the 1950s and being such an open and brave look at homosexual love in WW2. It's about Laurie, a wounded soldier, not quite at ease with his own ho...more
This novel is apparently quite a landmark in gay literature, published in the 1950s and being such an open and brave look at homosexual love in WW2. It's about Laurie, a wounded soldier, not quite at ease with his own ho...more
A novel about a gay British soldier recuperating in a hospital from a battle injury during WWII, and the Conscientious Objector he falls in love with. If only there hadn't been so much more to the story -- it seemed to be depicting a subculture of gay men in the 40s, and while that was very interesting historically, it was *really* hard to follow all the things in the story. In fact, I think this may be one of the only books I've ever read where I could re-read passages several times and still f...more
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: Laurie Odell, injured during World War II, is transferred to a veterans hospital. There he meets and falls in love with a Quaker Hospital attendant, Andrew Raynes, an innocent young man who hasn’t figured himself out yet. To complicate matters fate brings back into his life an old school friend, Ralph Lanyon, who is familiar with the pitfalls of being gay during that era and also develops feelings for him. Laurie, healing from his injury and at the crossroads of his life, m...more
Summary: Laurie Odell, injured during World War II, is transferred to a veterans hospital. There he meets and falls in love with a Quaker Hospital attendant, Andrew Raynes, an innocent young man who hasn’t figured himself out yet. To complicate matters fate brings back into his life an old school friend, Ralph Lanyon, who is familiar with the pitfalls of being gay during that era and also develops feelings for him. Laurie, healing from his injury and at the crossroads of his life, m...more
This is my favorite of the great Renault's books, though I love them all with the exception of one called The Friendly Young Ladies (which, oddly enough, is about lesbians as Mary herself was). I'm not sure why I liked it less, but I did. It was many years ago and I should reread it.
One thing I especially liked about The Charioteer is one of the protagonists is a pacifist, who, looked upon as cowards, were brave enough to buck the system, the military, and society because of their beliefs. That...more
One thing I especially liked about The Charioteer is one of the protagonists is a pacifist, who, looked upon as cowards, were brave enough to buck the system, the military, and society because of their beliefs. That...more
Ironic that I breeze through Mary Renault's Greek work with ease. I get the references and I know what a phalanx is, etc. When she's talking about British public school systems and, yanno, stuff that happened in the last century... WHAT? WHAT? I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU!
I did make a pleased noise when I saw this was back on the shelf at Union Square. I had to special order my copy.
I don't know what to say, it's Mary Renault. Writing is wonderful as always and it's got the trademark bittersweetness....more
I did make a pleased noise when I saw this was back on the shelf at Union Square. I had to special order my copy.
I don't know what to say, it's Mary Renault. Writing is wonderful as always and it's got the trademark bittersweetness....more
This is literally without a doubt the best book I have ever read. The writing style is flawless, and although the storyline is admittedly a bit slow at first, there's no doubt that it will eventually suck you in with such emotion that you won't be able to put it down.
I would have to agree with all the other reviewers with respect to the last 50-100 pages or so in that I was in tears for literally hours during and after I reached the conclusion, and I very rarely cry. I really can't emphasize eno...more
I would have to agree with all the other reviewers with respect to the last 50-100 pages or so in that I was in tears for literally hours during and after I reached the conclusion, and I very rarely cry. I really can't emphasize eno...more
The very first book I read from Mary Renault and perhaps the first
one that introduced me to M/M romance.
I bought this book without even reading the summary. The cover and
the title, were just that good. Thinking it'll be another ancient
Greece book, I was shocked to find out that it actually referred to
World War II.
But then the characters begin unfolding their lives and feelings,
and it was impossible for me to stop. I think that even though all
the events and the relationships are described in a ve...more
one that introduced me to M/M romance.
I bought this book without even reading the summary. The cover and
the title, were just that good. Thinking it'll be another ancient
Greece book, I was shocked to find out that it actually referred to
World War II.
But then the characters begin unfolding their lives and feelings,
and it was impossible for me to stop. I think that even though all
the events and the relationships are described in a ve...more
An astonishment. This is contemporary, not one of her Greek Alexander novels, which are astonishing on
their own terms. But the writing! I kept putting this down and running to the computer, to try to BE her, to think
like that, and write like that. I tried to wedge some of this Renaultness into my own novel, which seemed like a great idea at the time and
then of course didn't. But I think reading this made me a better writer. It made me want to see things more clearly,
bring them to the page with g...more
their own terms. But the writing! I kept putting this down and running to the computer, to try to BE her, to think
like that, and write like that. I tried to wedge some of this Renaultness into my own novel, which seemed like a great idea at the time and
then of course didn't. But I think reading this made me a better writer. It made me want to see things more clearly,
bring them to the page with g...more
This is one Mary Renault novel that isn't set in classical Greece. The story unfolds in England during World War II, when the love that dare not speak its name rarely, if ever, did in fact speak its name, and then only in extenuating circumstances. The circumspection makes for some elegant, insightful, and pleasurable writing. Laurie, the androgynously named and likable protagonist, sorts out aesthetic and ethical (are they the same thing?) quandaries while coping with a war injury (his leg). Af...more
wow, what a find... being a fan of somerset maugham and oscar wilde, I found a lot of similarities, perhaps because of relationships that need to be read between the lines
this is a WWII gay love story triangle of three protagonists, laurie odell, ralph lanyon, and andrew raynes
in prep school laurie is given Plato's Phaedrus by his superior, ralph, 3 years his senior, as a gift upon ralph's departure
mr. lanyon is being expelled because of an indiscretion with a younger student
by chapter three we...more
this is a WWII gay love story triangle of three protagonists, laurie odell, ralph lanyon, and andrew raynes
in prep school laurie is given Plato's Phaedrus by his superior, ralph, 3 years his senior, as a gift upon ralph's departure
mr. lanyon is being expelled because of an indiscretion with a younger student
by chapter three we...more
The first thing I'd like to say is: this book is not for everyone. I've lent it to my two best male friends (one gay and one straight) and got it back with an unenthusiastic "it was okay" from both.
However, this 33-year old female has (re)read it countless times in the last 15 years. Knows paragraphs by heart. And still feels moved by it every time.
So... I cannot really tell if you'll love it or hate it. So, I'll just give you a hint: the power of the book lies not on what is described, but on w...more
However, this 33-year old female has (re)read it countless times in the last 15 years. Knows paragraphs by heart. And still feels moved by it every time.
So... I cannot really tell if you'll love it or hate it. So, I'll just give you a hint: the power of the book lies not on what is described, but on w...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| Q&A with Josh...: December 2012 and January 2013 | 532 | 125 | Feb 02, 2013 12:47am |
Mary Renault
AKA Eileen Mary Challans
Born: 4-Sep-1905
Birthplace: London, England
Died: 13-Dec-1983
Location of death: Cape Town, South Africa
Father: Frank Challans (physician)
Mother: Clementine Newsome Baxter
Sister: Joyce
Girlfriend: Julie Mullard (life-long companion)
High School: Clifton Girls School, Bristol, England
University: BA, St. Hugh's College, Oxford University (1928)
Medical School: Radcl...more
More about Mary Renault...
AKA Eileen Mary Challans
Born: 4-Sep-1905
Birthplace: London, England
Died: 13-Dec-1983
Location of death: Cape Town, South Africa
Father: Frank Challans (physician)
Mother: Clementine Newsome Baxter
Sister: Joyce
Girlfriend: Julie Mullard (life-long companion)
High School: Clifton Girls School, Bristol, England
University: BA, St. Hugh's College, Oxford University (1928)
Medical School: Radcl...more
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“You mustn't get so upset about what you feel, Spud. No one's a hundred per cent consistent all the time. We might like to be. We can plan our lives along certain lines. But you know, there's no future in screwing down all the pressure valves and smashing in the gauge. You can do it for a bit and then something goes. Sometimes it gets s that the only thing is just to say, 'That's what I'd like to feel twenty-four hours a day; but, the hell with it, this is how I feel now.”
—
15 people liked it
“He kept telling me I was queer, and I didn't like it. The word, I mean. Shutting you away, somehow; roping you off with a lot of people you don't feel much in common with, half of whom hate the other half anyway, and just keep together so that they can lean up against each other for support.”
—
8 people liked it
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