1. Source Material and its Limitations:

a. What difficulties of evidence must the modern biographer address in reconstructing a life culturally distant from the modern world and greatly romanticized over the intervening milennia?
b. How does Renault present the interplay of historical sources and legendary accounts in introducing the reader to the story of Alexander? What particular incidents in the life of Alexander as recounted by Renault can be seen to exemplify the tensions between history and the accretions of legend?
c. What role does speculation play in Renault's account of incidents and in her analyses of motives throughout the work? (e.g., in her account of the murder of Philip)

a. What particular incidents in Alexander's life allow Renault's insights into his personality to function as biography rather than simply as history?
b. How does Renault fashion the larger historical narrative to highlight particular incidents as biographically significant?
c. What role does lineage and the right of succession play in the account?

a. In what ways does Renault exhibit selectivity? In other words, what aspects of the available material does she rely upon to fashion her portrait of Alexander? How does this selectivity contribute to her picture of him?
b. Given that the image of Alexander has changed as different ages and peoples have adopted him into their own cultural, social and political milieu, what similar considerations might be expected in a biography written in the latter half of the present century? Where in Renault's account do such considerations surface? How do they reflect her approach to her subject?
c. Renault's own personal observations often form an element of her analyses of incidents. Which examples reveal the personality of the biographer herself in the narrative?

a. Which specific passages are evidence that Renault has incorporated these two qualities into her narrative and into her analyses of Alexander's personality?
b. What particular aspects of AlexanderÕs physical and intellectual character does Renault present? How do these contribute to her portrayal of him?
c. What specific relationships in AlexanderÕs life does Renault emphasize as significant in influencing his actions? What conclusions does she draw about the effects of each of these relationships?
d. Renault's analyses of AlexanderÕs motives and inner thoughts often take the form of abbreviated personal observations during or at the end of accounts of particularly significant incidents. Which are the most striking in their effect? Why? How do they lead the reader to understand RenaultÕs intended portrait of the personality of Alexander?
e. How does Renault view the influence of the works of Homer and Xenophon on Alexander? In which instances does she emphasize this influence?

a. What is the effect of beginning the work with the account of Alexander's funeral? What role might the account of Alexander's funeral train and the subsequent fate of his coffin play in establishing a framework for the way Renault tells the story of Alexander in the remainder of the book?
b. What incidents related by Renault are particularly well-told? How do these further the narrative? How do they enable Renault to succeed with her portrayal of Alexander? Which elements of the narrative do not contribute to this portrayal?
c. Where in the narrative do the themes of companionship, mistrust, devotion, pain, fear, and death appear? How do they function as the means by which Renault depicts the character of Alexander and of his contemporaries?

Selected Recent Bibliography on Alexander:

• Andronikos, Manolis, et al. The Search for Alexander: An Exhibition. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1980. (DF11.3. W37 S4 1980b) The catalogue of artifacts from the exhibition mounted at the National Gallery in Washington, D. C., including those excavated in 1977 from the Macedonian Royal Tombs at Vergina.
  
• Bamm, Peter. Alexander the Great: Power as Destiny. Trans. by J. M. Brownjohn. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1968. (DF234. E423) A readable and attractive volume featuring artistic and archaeological images detailing the life of Alexander from his boyhood in Macedon to his death in Babylon.
  
• Bieber, Margarete. Alexander the Great in Greek and Roman Art. Chicago: Argonaut, 1964. (DF234.3. B5) An illustrated and chronologically arranged survey of the representations of Alexander.
  
• Bosworth, A. B. From Arrian to Alexander: Studies in Historical Interpretation, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. (DF234.2. B67 1988) An academic investigation into the historical and literary features of ArrianÍs History of Alexander.
  
• Carlsen, Jesper, et al. eds. Alexander the Great: Reality and Myth. Rome: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 1993. (DF234. A53 1993) A collection of articles, some illustrated, drawn from a 1992 conference on Alexander. Carlsen's "Alexander the Great: 1970-1990" (41-52) surveys recent work on Alexander.
  
• Green, Peter. Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, c.1991. (DF234. G68 1991) A reprint of the 1974 work written by an eminent scholar of Ancient Greece and designed for a general readership. A second edition is currently in progress.
  
• O'Brien, John Maxwell. Alexander the Great: The Invisible Enemy: A Biography. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. (DF234. O27 1992) A well researched biographical study emphasizing the role of alcohol and the influence of Greek literature on the personality and actions of Alexander.
  
• Stewart, Andrew F. Faces of Power: Alexander's Image and Hellenistic Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. (DF234.2. S74 1993) A serious and engaging art-historical discussion of the image of Alexander featuring a host of illustrations and a wealth of technical analyses.
  
  Biography:

• Elms, Alan C. Uncovering Lives: The Uneasy Alliance of Biography and Psychology. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. (BF39.4. E46 1994) A recent work addressing issues and difficulties in psychobiography.
  
• Karl, F. R. Biography and Sources Studies. Vol. 1. New York: AMS Press, 1994. (CT 21 B472 v.1) The first of a proposed annual series on issues and approaches to the genre of biography.
  
• Pachter, M. ed., Telling Lives: The Biographer's Art. Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books, 1979. (CT 21. T44) A collection of essays by prominent biographers covering a range of issues in the genre. Of note is Barbara Tuchman's "Biography as a Prism of History" (132-147).
  
• Runyan, William M. Life Histories and Psychobiology. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. (BF 38.5 R86 1982) Studies on the writing of biography from the psychological perspective. Chapters 2 and 3 address the problems presented by alternative accounts of the lives of biographical subjects, including the likes of Christ, Shakespeare, and Linclon.
  
• Runyan, William McKinley, ed. Psychology and Historical Interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. (D16.16. P87 1988) Academically-oriented essays on the use of psychological analysis for interpreting historical phenonomena.