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Title: Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad by Eva T. H. Brann ISBN: 0-9679675-7-0 Publisher: Paul Dry Books Inc Pub. Date: October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: a helpful addition to Homer commentaries
Comment: The first thing the reader will notice is that this book is much more accessible than more overtly scholarly texts -- this is a good thing for either first time readers or long time fans of Homer's works. The opening chapters set the scene well and explain her methodology of picking special moments that illuminate the work as a whole. I enjoyed the first half of the book tremendously and found many fresh insights and interesting observations about both the Iliad and the Odyssey. My only slight disappointment was with the last 50-100 pages which focus mostly on plot summary of the Odyssey rather than her interesting commentary although she points out things along the way the readers should note. The last section reads more like Cliff's Notes while the first two-thirds of the book genuinely added to the reader's delight in Homer's works. Overall an excellent book.
Rating: 5
Summary: A virtuoso work
Comment: Homer is, sadly, too often intimidating to the general reader who believes, wrongly but understandably, that he is archaic, irrelevant, and likely to be unreadable. After all, a book length poem -- as the contemporary high-schooler would say, give me a break.
Eva Brann accomplishes, remarkably, two quite different achievements. First, she shows that even after nearly three millenia Homer remains completely relevant and accessible to the contemporary reader. Second, she provides insights which make the poem far more enjoyable to read, and demystifies many of the aspects which might confuse the modern reader.
She does this with a subtle but delightful wit, and with a patient wisdom honed in forty years of teaching.
Homer is not simply about the Trojan war and its aftermath, but is about what it means to live a life of honor and integrity. Brann understands this perfectly, and indeed echos it in her book, which is not simply about how to enjoy Homer, but is itself about what it means to be a successful human.
Brann's academic home, St. John's, is one of the few colleges in the country -- probably in the world -- to abandon the concept of academic departments and to focus on the teacher as a guide to the great minds of history rather than as the teacher in his or her own right. This is the perfect background from which she writes a book which is rich in scholarship but in no way academic or professorial.
Rating: 5
Summary: Laying apart insights in motive and character
Comment: Written by Eva Brann, a literature teacher who has studied The Odyssey and The Iliad for fifty years, Homeric Moments: Clues To Delight In Reading The Odyssey And The Iliad is a thoroughly "reader friendly" and insightful study of these great classic masterpieces of history and epic. Deeply examining the key figures, laying apart insights in motive and character, and illumine Homer's work for the unique and enduringly popular saga that it is, Homeric Moments is a superb companion for dedicated students of ancient literature in general, and those new to the mythic sagas of the blind poet Homer in particular.
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Title: The World of Odysseus (New York Review Books Classics Series) by M. I. Finley, Bernard Knox ISBN: 1590170172 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 10 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Miriam, Sister Joseph, Marguerite McGlinn, Miriam Joseph (Sister), Miriam ISBN: 0967967503 Publisher: Paul Dry Books Inc Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Homer on Life and Death by Jasper Griffin ISBN: 0198140266 Publisher: Clarendon Pr Pub. Date: December, 1983 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Approaches to Teaching Homer's Iliad and Odyssey by Kostas Myrsiades, Kostas ISBN: 0873525000 Publisher: Modern Language Association of America Pub. Date: May, 1987 List Price(USD): $19.75 |
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Title: Encounters & Reflections: Conversations With Seth Benardete: With Robert Berman, Ronna Burger, and Michael Davis by Seth Benardete, Ronna Burger, University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226042782 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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