Rating: 
Summary: Ancient Greek theatre, history and love
Review: No one has ever written historical novels of ancient Greece as Mary Renault has. This one is about the theatre, Plato, and his pupil Dion of Syracuse. Together, they try to lead a just state but are thwarted by tyranny. It blends historical fact into a fascinating story with a cameo appearance by the young Alexander the Great. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Life as art and art as life
Review: One of the things that make Mary Renault such a great historical novelist is that she opens doors you never thought existed and gets you wanting to explore and learn more. I had to read several Greek plays in high school but they were always kind of ho-hum until Renault brought them vibrantly to life in "The Mask of Apollo" in the character of Nikeratos, an Athenian actor in 4th-century BC Greece who learns his craft from the ground up and brings us onstage and backstage into his world of great drama. Nikeratos travels from Greece to Sicily and back, acting in plays by such immemorial dramatists as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and bringing life to his art and art into his life and the lives of those he interacts with. Parallel with the story of Nikeratos is the story of Dion of Syracuse, a real historical figure who successfully brought down the dictatorship of Dionysios the Younger, only to install his own dictatorship in its place. "The Mask of Apollo" brings to life historical figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Speusippos (an enigmatic character I would have liked to know more of) and many others that we only read about in history texts, and makes them become real and personal. She also makes us live in ancient Syracuse with its sights and sounds, its political intrigues and dangers. (Contrary to what one reviewer said, however, Renault gave only one line in passing to the Athenian defeat at Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War and the tragic aftermath; that was treated at length in "The Last of the Wine" but not in this book.) After finishing this book, I headed straight to the bookstore for a good translation of "The Bacchae" by Euripides, which I'd never heard of before Renault relates how brilliantly Nikeratos acts the leading role, and devoured it at one sitting. Renault does her readers a double favor: she not only gives them a gem of a book, she sends them on a treasure hunt to find some more.
Rating:
Summary: Life as art and art as life
Review: One of the things that make Mary Renault such a great historical novelist is that she opens doors you never thought existed and gets you wanting to explore and learn more. I had to read several Greek plays in high school but they were always kind of ho-hum until Renault brought them vibrantly to life in "The Mask of Apollo" in the character of Nikeratos, an Athenian actor in 4th-century BC Greece who learns his craft from the ground up and brings us onstage and backstage into his world of great drama. Nikeratos travels from Greece to Sicily and back, acting in plays by such immemorial dramatists as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and bringing life to his art and art into his life and the lives of those he interacts with. Parallel with the story of Nikeratos is the story of Dion of Syracuse, a real historical figure who successfully brought down the dictatorship of Dionysios the Younger, only to install his own dictatorship in its place. "The Mask of Apollo" brings to life historical figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Speusippos (an enigmatic character I would have liked to know more of) and many others that we only read about in history texts, and makes them become real and personal. She also makes us live in ancient Syracuse with its sights and sounds, its political intrigues and dangers. (Contrary to what one reviewer said, however, Renault gave only one line in passing to the Athenian defeat at Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War and the tragic aftermath; that was treated at length in "The Last of the Wine" but not in this book.) After finishing this book, I headed straight to the bookstore for a good translation of "The Bacchae" by Euripides, which I'd never heard of before Renault relates how brilliantly Nikeratos acts the leading role, and devoured it at one sitting. Renault does her readers a double favor: she not only gives them a gem of a book, she sends them on a treasure hunt to find some more.
Rating:
Summary: My 2nd favorite book of all time
Review: The beautiful and the good. Mary Renault brings the classical ideals alive ... greatness of people, greatness of story, greatness of writing ... touching, lively, profound, enduring.My 1st favorite is her "Praise Singer"
Rating:
Summary: An inspiring look at an actor's life in ancient Greece.
Review: The Mask of Apollo is a beautifully detailed historical novel concerning actors and acting traditions from ancient Greece. Mary Renault fills in the unknown details to explain conventions of ancient theatre,while making the characters as funny and human as any modern actor. This book is a treat for anyone interested in the history of theatr
Rating: 
Summary: WOW WHAT A BAD BOOK
Review: the mask of apollo rates right up there with the rest of the crummy books i have had to read for school. it was one of the most horrible, boring, unimaginative, bland, uninteresting pieces of trash i have ever read in my life. it smelled so bad it had to be fumigated. i hope somebody gets the bright idea to write some cliff notes to this book so that poor souls like me that have to read this for school do not have to actually read this if a person can be found that has the ability to sit still and actually read the chapters. i couldn't. what i did was read a sentence on each page. hey i wasnt missing much anyway.
Rating:
Summary: the emotional connection
Review: there are many reviews of ms. renault's work here already, so i will keep this very brief: the reason mary renault is my favorite author is that she can bring the emotional and human quality of her characters to the surface. she makes these long dead people with strange names come alive. she gives them a quotidian life. she makes them human, and humane. true, her knowledge of the ancient greeks is encyclopedic. true, her descriptions are wonderous, but her deep empathy for the people in her novels is what separates her from other historical writers. she also handles homoeroticism/homosocial behavior with a sweetness and sensitivity that demonstrates the value of the delicate bonds that men should be encouraged to explore and nurture. her compassion for the human experience is sometimes overwhelming.
Rating:
Summary: Passion, the Future and the Gods
Review: There are three elements that make this a great novel. First is Renault's ingenious device to critique Plato and Dion through the eyes of an actor. Plato's greatest intellectual flaw, to many, is his devotion to logic at the expense of the passions. The actor, who earns his bread through the inspiration of passion, can see instantly the weaknesses and where they will ultimately lead. Second, in this book more than any other, Renault makes you feel the presence of the gods. She does this with subtlely, and one is always left wondering whether Nikeratos the actor is imagining (or, indeed, scripting) the voice of Apollo coming from his mask. But in his heart the reader knows that the voice is genuine and that it always leads Nikeratos to his best self. Third, this is the novel in which Renault really situates herself in a past, present and future. She even makes subtle jokes about it. (Nikeratos, in a fever, dreams of playing Hamlet -- although if you didn't know Hamlet you'd never get the joke.) In this novel, much more so than in those that preceded it, she makes up her mind that all Greek history leads to or from Alexander. This is the novel she wrote just before Fire From Heaven and she has already decided where she is going.
Rating:
Summary: Passion, the Future and the Gods
Review: There are three elements that make this a great novel. First is Renault's ingenious device to critique Plato and Dion through the eyes of an actor. Plato's greatest intellectual flaw, to many, is his devotion to logic at the expense of the passions. The actor, who earns his bread through the inspiration of passion, can see instantly the weaknesses and where they will ultimately lead. Second, in this book more than any other, Renault makes you feel the presence of the gods. She does this with subtlely, and one is always left wondering whether Nikeratos the actor is imagining (or, indeed, scripting) the voice of Apollo coming from his mask. But in his heart the reader knows that the voice is genuine and that it always leads Nikeratos to his best self. Third, this is the novel in which Renault really situates herself in a past, present and future. She even makes subtle jokes about it. (Nikeratos, in a fever, dreams of playing Hamlet -- although if you didn't know Hamlet you'd never get the joke.) In this novel, much more so than in those that preceded it, she makes up her mind that all Greek history leads to or from Alexander. This is the novel she wrote just before Fire From Heaven and she has already decided where she is going.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring with little character description
Review: This book I would only recommend to a Greek Historian. I had to read the Mask of Apollo for school and if I read more then 10 pages at a time I was doing good. Niko just sort of walks around the whole time and doesn't do much. Only at the very end does the book get a little bit intersting. The author also doesn't give very good character depth so you just get a feeling of "BLAH" from this book.
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