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From Amazon
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"I long to be homeward bound" Simon and Garfunkle,
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This review is from: The Odyssey (Hardcover)
The Trojan War is over and one of our hero kings is lost. His son (Telemachus) travels to find any information about his father's fait. His wife (Penelope) must cunningly hold off suitors that are eating them out of house and home.If he ever makes it home Odysseus will have to detect those servants loyal from those who are not. One absent king against rows of suitors; how will he give them their just deserts? We look to Bright Eyed Pallas Athena to help prophecy come true. Interestingly all the tales of monsters and gods on the sea voyage was told by Odysseus. Notice that no on else survives to tell the tale. So we have to rely on Odysseus' word. Many movies took sections of The Odyssey, and expanded them to make interesting stories those selves. Not just the story but the way in which it is told will keep you up late at night reading.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fagles is not the translator to read,
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This review is from: The Odyssey (Hardcover)
Yes, the Odyssey is a magnificent book; I am shocked at the effusive praise for Fagles' translation, however. The best that can be said is that (a) his translation is not too different from those of his superiors, ie Lattimore and Fitzgerald and (b) he doesn't obscure Homer's timeless achievement too much. But there is a distinct whiff of what Nabokov called "poshlost" in Fagle's translation--a sort of suburban vulgarity, with its anacronisms (eg "Scot-free") and casual slang. The Fagle translation's instant reputation, will, I am sure, fade away quickly, just another fleeting illusion successfully created by the modern American media's hype machine. Read the Lattimore and Fitzgerald translations, both of which are available from Amazon.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fagles Brings the Odyssey Home,
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This review is from: The Odyssey (Hardcover)
This is an attractive book with a lot to like inside. It has a knowing and substantial introduction by Bernard Knox that talks of the Odyssey in some detail, and of the world the Iliad and Odyssey depict. (Incidentally, his introduction to Fagles's Iliad is identical in its more general parts, but unique where it discusses the particular poem at issue.) Robert Fagles supplies an afterword in which he discusses the reasons for his approach, and some of his strategies. There are maps, a few family genealogies and a list for further reading. Bernard Knox also supplies the notes to the poem. Finally, the poem's own line numbers are tracked, as well as those of the (Oxford) Greek edition which was its source (deviations from that source are noted). This book also includes a valuable pronouncing glossary covering virtually every place-name and person-name used in the story. The translator made a fine decision to render the names in their Latin, instead of Greek, forms. In their Latin forms they can be said using ordinary English sounds for the most part, and these pronunciations are sanctioned by long usage in English literature. Thus, you do not have to stop and explain to someone that by "Kir-kay" you really mean whom they know as Circe ("sir-see"). The primary decision for a translator of Homer is whether to use verse or prose. Fagles wishes to bring across the Odyssey as a song or chant, as in the original, so quite properly uses verse. Homer's line was strict: its syllable count was always twelve, and while variation was permitted within the line, the last few syllables always had a narrowly-prescribed form. In addition, each line was typically a syntactic unit. These two facts control the feel of an Homeric recitation, which must have been quite rhythmic, especially with a strummed accompaniment. This Homeric line is not consonant with the genius of English metrics, but Fagles constructs his lines with Homeric song in mind. They tend to be six beats and loosely iambic, but he does not hesitate to go longer or shorter at need. He also tries to keep the lines syntactic wholes - phrases or clauses - but if not the slopover is usually graceful (in that one can pause slightly at line-end without doing violence to some partially-completed phrase). His language, too, is interesting, a non-literary, plain-spoken diction larded with quaint colloquialisms (e.g. "heart to heart", "my hopes ride high") cheek by jowl with exotic allusions to the gods that I think has the intent (it certainly has the effect) of depicting the narrator as a bit old-fashioned but honest, and his story true. I have also read Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey a couple times and enjoyed it, and have partially read the verse versions of Mandelbaum and of Lattimore. I like Fagles better than these. Fitzgerald and Mandelbaum use five-beat lines; Fitzgerald's is loose, but Mandelbaum's a strict pentameter. Both of these versions read very well, but for Homer I prefer the six-beat line. Lattimore does use a consistently six-beat line, but his verse is inferior - it seems more like evenly-sliced prose. And none of these editions has the support sections the Fagles edition has (particularly that lovely pronouncing glossary). As to how well the Fagles Odyssey plays, I have listened to Ian McKellan's recording of it: he does a great job - it is clearly the marriage of a fine actor and a superior text. The only thing I could wish for is someone strumming a lyre in the background.
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