The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) | Homer

The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) | Homer | Stick with Rieu's original...

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The Odyssey (Pengu...

	The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) Homer Penguin Classics, 2006 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 38 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Robert Fagles?s stunning modern-verse translation?available at last in our black-spine classics line

The Odyssey is literature?s grandest evocation of everyman?s journey through life. In the myths and legends that are retold here, renowned translator Robert 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. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general reader, and to captivate a new generation of Homer?s students.

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A great translation.

I recommend this translation for anyone who loves this story, and tried to read it before and gave up. This book is an easy, flowing, beautiful read. Some readers may disagree with some of the translator's choices. For instance, the scene where Odysseus must carefully explain to Calypso why he wants to leave her - this translation has him say that he longs to travel home and see the dawn of his return. I prefer it translated as he longs for his homecoming. There are some very ancient-Greek reasons why that way of saying it conveys a fuller meaning, and also explains why Calypso doesn't press him further. But, unless you're a scholar of Homerian epics, you probably won't feel cheated by this translation. Instead, you will be transported by the poetry, excited by the adventure, and delighted by the fact that you are reading this great work of art without struggle.

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Stick with Rieu's original...

(I'm not sure why amazon has over half of these reviews for Fagels's translation on Rieu's page? I noticed this happening quite a bit on amazon, but anyway...)

I have spent quite a bit of time comparing versions of "The Odyssey", and out of all of them I settled on Rieu's pioneering translation.

It was originally published in 1946 as Penguin's very first book!

He would recite "The Odyssey" from the original Greek to his wife and children during the second world war in London while bombs dropped around them. It was Rieu's wish to start a publishing company that dealt with reviving the classics for common man. Penguin Classics is now the most widely loved, read and utilized editions on the market! What a vision he had!

This edition of The Odyssey was revised by his son in 1991 and reprinted with a better print and layout in 2002. It still carries a type of "joie de vivre" all throughout, a wonderful raciness, and a strength of believablity.

...as good as the revised one is, I actually prefer Rieu's original more because of the humble human language he uses...which has mostly been taken away.

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Older and Wiser

While the story is fictional and full of all the joys and horrors of life, I am, at my later years finding that this text, the bible, and roman mythology have so much in common as to stimulate our minds, conceptions, and views without reducing our individual religious beliefs. The tales compliment and in some small way confirm each of mankinds dealing with the unknown at that period of history. To have the background of reading the Bible, Homer, Romans, Voltaire, etc. is to truly come to grips with an individual religion and God, versus, a rote learned Higher Power.

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The reason some stories remain classics is simply because they deserve it. This ancient story is as exciting, sexy, and romantic as they possible come and that is simply how it should be. Post-Iliad comes the perilous journey back to Greece, a journey that lasts twenty years through every horrible (and yet totally cool thing) that could ever happen. It's passionate, fun, and exciting and I guess that is why they make us read all of it in high school. Well, yay!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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