Some principles of representation of historical personality in creative practice of the English writer Mary Renault are analysed by using the examples of her several novels. In some books (trilogy «Alexander the Great») the historical character is positioned into the centre of the narration, in other cases («The Mask of Apollo», «The Last of the Wine») the main character is a fictitious person, the historical personality stands «at the periphery» of the plot, but the philosophic content of the work is always unfolded in the description of the historical character. When creating the concept of the historical personality, Mary Renault relies primarily on the descriptions of contemporaries, choosing the least questionable moments of a character's biography. M. Renault always defends her own seeing of the motives for the character's behavior and endues her characters with outstanding natures, which unfold before the readers the temper of the great person and allow philosophical questions to be posed in her works.
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