As an early example of pro m/m literature, it has attracted a gay audience as well as appealing to slash writers as a model of serious writing of a similar bent. The Charioteer has been described as "a book of immense and subtle power and almost painful beauty" It combines a philosophical analysis of gay love, a war story, a classic love triangle, and a novel of character. An American edition was not published until 1959 (Pantheon), at which time the book was cut from some 400 pages to 350 pages in length, mostly from the first half of the story. The novel was originally published in Britain in 1953 by Longman but Renault's American publisher at the time refused to issue it because of its content. The Charioteer is the last contemporary novel to be written by Mary Renault, who thereafter shifted to writing historical fiction set in Ancient Greece.
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