The Odyssey: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

By Homer

Book Overview

The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles

Now a major motion picture directed by Christopher Nolan

A Penguin Classic

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "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." So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey, which Jasper Griffin in the New York Times Book Review hails as "a distinguished achievement."

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of an everyman's journey through life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb introduction and textual commentary provide insightful background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles's translation. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general reader, to captivate a new generation of Homer's students. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition features French flaps and deckle-edged paper.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B01FOXVKBA
• ISBN13: 9780140268867
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.7" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

I liked it

Although I ordered the wrong translation, the book was in great shape.

Must Read

A fantastic poem, great intro into Greek writing. The humor and storytelling is very enjoyable. Only note would be to get the poem translation. Do NOT get the narrative translation, it makes it unnecessarily difficult to read.

Such A Lovely Book!

I love the interior cover design and mini illustrations to go along with the poem inside! The artistic language used to tell ideas and events are wonderful as well. I really love how they use long chunks of dialogues to tell about more events and stories. Overall the many adventures of Odysseus is certainly wonderful to read about.