‘That’s why he challenged you to fight with him,
So he might seem to lose, and you to win,
And that way save your pride, and win your love.’
A battlefield near Troy. Attacks by vicious women warriors hamper the Greeks’ siege…
John Banville’s third foray as a dramatist is based on Penthesilea (1908), a tragedy by Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), and embraces the German Romantic’s variation on the conventional story of Achilles’ slaughter of the Amazon queen. With surprising verve, Banville recounts the emotional turbulence and conflicting impulses of a heroine overcome by love.
Love in the Wars melds the latent violence of passion with compassion and its author leavens this ‘hideous tragedy… all for love’ with mischievous wit. The result is a scintillating addition to the oeuvre of a great artist.
