- Hardcover: 243 pages
- Publisher: David R. Godine; 1 edition (Oct 1 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1567922066
- ISBN-13: 978-1567922066
- Product Dimensions: 26 x 18.1 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,890,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Penelope, wife of Odysseus, embarks on an epic adventure of her own after her husband returns from his wanderings in this artfully crafted work, an extended narrative poem in the style of Homer (via Richard Lattimore's translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey). The book opens with a startling revelation: while Odysseus has been off on his journeys, his wife, Penelope, has been raising twin daughters, Ailanthis and Nerianne, who were conceived just before he left and have now become young women. Both have ambitions of their own, and after a brief family conference, Penelope and her two daughters visit the Prophetess of Pytho to clarify their respective fates. Following the oracle's prediction, Nerianne elects to stay behind with her and exercise her healing gift of song. Penelope and Ailanthis, meanwhile, set off to visit Helen of Troy and seek a cure for the twins' brother, Telemachos, who has been grievously wounded in an attack by a mysterious beast. After their time in Troy, the women move on to an encounter with Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons, who tries to entice both Ailanthis and Penelope to remain with her. Rawlings shows a flair for the format with her lively, smoothly flowing narrative verse ("I could not keep my smile within me. So there we stood:/two victors flushed with success of the battle or the hunt"), though she occasionally lets her modern values leak into the storytelling. Overall, the author turns a potentially dry, academic conceit into vibrant fiction, bringing to new life the female figures who played a pivotal role in one of the seminal works of world literature.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* A novel in rolling lines of verse a la Richmond Lattimore's translations of Homer may seem unlikely to be a page-turner, but that is what this startlingly inventive book is. Its form is precisely appropriate to its style, for this is the story of left-behind, stay-at-home epic wife Penelope, who in the Odyssey does little more than fend off suitors while her husband, aiming in the general direction of home, adventures around the Mediterranean. Rawlings starts where Homer leaves off, as Odysseus finally reclaims throne, land, and wife. But surprises are at hand. There are twin daughters, conceived before Odysseus departed and raised in such secrecy that even Telemachos, their brother, was kept in the dark and so couldn't reveal their existence when he met his father in the Odyssey. Penelope's solemn oath to Athena demands that she and her daughters travel to Delphi, but Odysseus is unwilling to abandon his fantasy that Penelope hasn't matured in his absence, despite the fact that she has been running the kingdom. An injury to Telemachos changes the king's mind, and the three females embark on their own odyssey, made more urgent by the need to find a cure for the prince. Stunning scenes follow, especially Penelope's encounters with the Delphic oracle and the warrior Amazons, before a passionate suitor makes Penelope consider whether her loyalty has been misplaced. Perfectly blending form, style, and content, Rawlings makes an unforgettable character out of a mythic cypher. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Takes you back 3000 years,
By "lgredmond" (aspen, co United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Penelopeia (Hardcover)
I thoroughly enjoyed this exciting tale of Odysseus's wife Penelopes enchanting adventures.The format is written in verse in the Homeric style lending it authenticity. Great read!!!
3.0 out of 5 stars
Rawlings makes us roar,
By Keats (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Penelopeia (Hardcover)
In a technologically advanced age where love, loyalty and the desire to embark on an adventurous odyssey have become increasingly complex, could a story about a woman in ancient Greece make a difference? Could Jane Rawlings' "The Penelopeia," enlighten our mundane reality--a reality thatrefuses to ask if. "The Penelopeia" refuses to celebrate the power of human imagination before exposing its artificial sensibility. Its crisp and unabashedly simple narrative, packed with menace, intrigue and pulse-beating twists, invites one question: is passion indeed the unacknowledged legislator of the truth? Rawlings' understanding of our thirst for adventure and raw passion makes us roar; even Plato would have approved Rawlings' dignified Chutzpah.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A woman writes an epic poem ...,
By 'amerye' - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Penelopeia (Hardcover)
A woman writes an epic poem ... and nobody notices.[I thank all of you polite & friendly Commentors for your support here -- you are much appreciated! And now apparently we can all look forward to some PLEASANT discussion from here on. Best wishes, amerye] 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warp and Weft,
By Customer Formerly Known as Giordano Bruno - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Penelopeia (Hardcover)
By now everybody knows that Homer was not a single person but rather a husband-and-wife writing team. Mr. Homer wrote the Iliad, with its incomparable action scenes, its earnest nobility, its chiseled-chin simplicity and unity. On the other hand, the layered ambiguity of the Odyssey, with its attention to psychological turmoil and its expressive secretiveness, could only have been the work of Mrs. Homer. Thus the large differences of syntax and vocabulary are explained.My sources suggest that Mrs. Homer had something of a reincarnated love affair with a scholar named Richmond Lattimore, a union which gave birth to Jane Rawlings, who inherited her mother's secrets and her father's literary style. The Penelopeia is therefore the grandchild so ardently desired by all. Rawlings certainly has both the manner and the flair for metaphorical language of Lattimore's translations of the Greek classics. Occasionally, one might wish that Rawlings had seen fit to write in her "mother's" tongue, since English lacks the metric sonority of Attic Greek. Without those thunderous cadences, The Penelopeia remains prose - very interesting prose, unlike any other except Lattimore's - but immune to the influences of modern English poetry. In short, this is a novel, with the novel structure of pseudo-epic free verse. As a novel, I enjoyed it a lot, and I won't give away any of its novelty. My only carping criticism would be that Telemachos in The Penelopeia doesn't seem to represent the same character as Telemachos in the Odyssey. Author's choice, of course, but I've always considered Telemachos the pivotal and by far the most appealing character in the old epic, as well as the most human. He's not such a subtle portrayal in the new epic. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting epilogue to The Odyssey,
By Steven A. Peterson - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Penelopeia (Hardcover)
At the heart of this book is an almost breathtaking act of authorial hubris--to create a follow up epic poem to "The Odyssey," featuring Odysseus' wife, Penelope. Despite that, this works pretty well on its own merits and, thus, is worth taking a look at.It is not, of course, at the same level as Homer's works. The book explores an odyssey of Penelope and her two daughters; there are 5-6 adventures (depending on how one counts them) that they take part in. Daughters? What's that all about? No word of these twins in Homer. But that is a starting point for this work, as Odysseus discovers that he has two daughters--and Telemachos that he has two sisters. The premise is slender, but works. Penelope had promised to visit an oracle. Also, her son is severely wounded by a not your normal boar, and she also seeks an herbal remedy to try to save his life. So, the journey reveals that much is at stake. Among highlights. . . . The visit to the Prophetess at Pytho. The trip to Menelaus' kingdom to see Helen (yes, of Troy), to seek her aid in finding the cure for Telemachos' sickness. It is fascinating to come across one scenario of what happened to Helen after she was returned to her husband at the close of the Trojan War. Other adventures? An encounter with a group of Amazons. And so on. There are questions one can raise about this work. Telemachos and Odysseus appear to be in very bad humor at the start of this work, as Penelope explains some of the events during her husband's absence. Their reaction does not seem to work well from my reading. In her adventures, there are a couple times where Penelope seems curiously irresolute and changes her mind for, to be honest, not much reason. Still, this is an interesting take on the aftereffects of Odysseus' struggles to return home to Ithaka. The characters are drawn pretty well; the verse is quite serviceable. The 238 pages of text moved along crisply as I read. There is also a nice glossary of names and places at the end (with a pronunciation guide). Quite helpful. If you can conceive of an extension of the Odyssey by Odysseus' wife, you will, I think, find this an appealing work. |
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