The Odyssey

by Homer

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Book Overview: The Odyssey

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

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.

ISBN-13	9780140268867
ISBN-10	0140268863
Publisher	Penguin Classics
Publication Date	1999
Edition	Reprint
Language	en
Pages	541
Dimensions	in x in x in
Weight	lbs

Editorial Reviews

“[Robert Fitzgerald’s translation is] a masterpiece . . . An “Odyssey” worthy of the original.” -“The Nation”
“[Fitzgerald’s” Odyssey” and “Iliad”] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” -“The Yale Review ”
“[In] Robert Fitzgerald’s translation . . . there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand, and this line-by-line vigilance builds up into a completely credible imagined world.”
-from the Introduction by Seamus Heaney

About the Author

Homer

Homer, a renowned figure of ancient Greece, is celebrated as the greatest epic poet of classical antiquity. Estimated to have lived around the 8th century B.C., he profoundly shaped Western literary tradition with his epic poems ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey.’ Though his actual existence is often debated, his profound influence on literature and culture is undeniable.

In ‘The Iliad’, Homer keenly portrays the horrific nature of war during the Trojan War and vividly delineates the heroism and fallibility of Greek warriors. On another hand, ‘The Odyssey’ is an engrossing narrative of Odysseus’s challenges and adventures during his lengthy voyage home following the end of the Trojan War. Both epic poems offer magnificent commentaries on human existence and delve into notions of honor, loyalty, mortality, and fate.

Homer’s literary contributions have echoed through the centuries, influencing countless artists, thinkers, and writers. His sophisticated characterization, thematic complexity, and striking imagery have elevated him to an almost mythical status in the literary world. Homer’s enduring legacy is a testament to his mastery of capturing the human condition in all its complexities, a legacy that continues to inspire and captivate readers across the globe.