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Title: The Odyssey by Homer, Robert Fagles, Bernard Knox ISBN: 0-14-026886-3 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.13 (109 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Translation
Comment: Firstly, some of the reviews have given poor ratings to this epic poem because they did not like the story of the Odyssey and not because it was a bad translation. In fact it is the best I've ever read. Pope's translation of course is more poetic but it is not at all accessible. Fagles does a wonderful job in updating the language to modern English so that we can understand the story. Also at the back of the book are notes and a short glossary so that if you are not familiar with any of the references to Gods for example you can look it up and learn more about Greek mythology. Finally Fagles has a great introduction (with maps) that gives you background into the world of Homer.
Rating: 5
Summary: A nearly perfect conjunction of elements
Comment: Fagle's translation of THE ODYSSEY in the Penguin edition is an almost perfect act of publishing. The translation itself manages to be enormously readable, highly poetic, and extremely accurate, all at the same time. The Introduction by Bernard Knox should serve as a model for all scholars who are called upon to write critical introductions for classic works of literature. And the book design is is extraordinary; this edition of Homer's classic is easily one of the most attractive paperback books in my library. I had read this once before in translation (in the old Rieu version), and then later translated much of it in a second year Greek class. But in neither instance did I enjoy it as much as reading the Fagles's translation.
Aristotle did not think that people should study philosophy too early in life, and perhaps that is also true of reading Homer. Part of me feels that we make a mistake in our education systems by making students read THE ODYSSEY before they are in a position to appreciate it. If one looks through the reviews here, a very large number of very negative reviews by a lot of high school students can be found. I find this unfortunate. In part I regret that we are forcing younger readers to read this book before they have fully matured as readers. Perhaps the book and the students themselves would be better served if we allowed them time to grow a bit more as readers before asking them to tackle Homer.
THE ODYSSEY is so enormously enjoyable (at least for this adult reader) that it is easy to forget just how very old it is. What impresses me is how readable it is, despite its age. There are very, very few widely read works older than THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY. And the gap between how entertaining these works are and those that come before them is gigantic. Try reading THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH or even THE HESIOD and then turning to THE ODYSSEY, and one can grasp my point. This is a very, very old work of literature, but it wears its age lightly. In the end, the greatest praise one can pay THE ODYSSEY is the fact that it can be read for fun, and not just because it is a classic.
Rating: 5
Summary: No omnipotent Gods
Comment: Many students look back in disgust on the compulsory literature they had to swallow in school, mostly (partly) in the original language.
For Homer's Odyssey (and the Iliad) this is an error.
The epic contains everything a book needs to make it an everlasting bestseller: sex sorceresses, lascivous temptresses, one-eyed ogres, innocent young maidens, flattering suitors and a model wife.
The story evolves with such eternal characters as the virtuous Penelope, the ingenious Odysseus, the innocent Nausikaa, Calypso's sex-appeaL, the man-eating Cyclops, Circe's sexual spells or the brash temptations of Scylla and Charybdis.
As in the Iliad, the only 'ancient' ingredient is the presence of the Gods, who intervene every time a disaster is going to happen.
But there is a big difference between the Iliad and the Odyssey. While in the Iliad the Gods are omnipotent, in the Odyssey 'they cannot prevent that those who are mortal die' and 'human catastrophies are man-made, not the faults of the Gods'.
Compared with the Iliad, the Odyssey is more a story-telling than a poetic epic with few Homeric comparisons or lenghty enumerations. It is also a more optimistic human tale.
A must read.
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Title: The Iliad by Homer, Robert Fagles, Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox, Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox ISBN: 0140275363 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Odyssey (Cliffs Notes) by Stanley P. Baldwin ISBN: 0764585991 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 22 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Aeneid by Virgil, ROBERT FITZGERALD ISBN: 0679729526 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 16 June, 1990 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Oresteia (PENGUIN CLASSICS) by Aeschylus, Robert Fagles, W. B. Stanford ISBN: 0140443339 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1984 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Three Theban Plays, The by Sophocles, Robert Fagles, Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox ISBN: 0140444254 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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