The Odyssey

October 27, 2014
British actor Stevens of Downton Abbey fame brings Homer’s epic poem to life with this well-executed reading of the classic tale of the Greek hero Odysseus and his 10-year journey home. When Odysseus is presumed dead after the Trojan War, his wife, Penelope, is awash with suitors looking to court her and in turn take over the land. While Penelope stalls the persistent suitors, her husband is cursed to wander the seas encountering all manner of mythical beings and even the gods, who all play their part in helping, or mostly hindering, the hero in his quest to find home. Stevens, with a cool, unmannered delivery, brings a modern vocal interpretation to his performance, making this ancient poem engaging to the modern ear and easy to listen to. With his relaxed reading, Stevens proves that this classic poem is definitely not some dry, dusty work of ancient history, but a vibrant exciting story that, like the best tales of adventure, works best when read aloud, as scholars contend it was intended. A Farrar, Straus and Giroux paperback.

Starred review from October 1, 2013
Employing the five-beat, minimally iambic line he used for his translation of The Iliad (2011), Mitchell retells the first, still greatest adventure story in Western literature with the same clarity, sweep, and force. Those similarities in his translations contradict the two poems' differences. The Iliad portrays a civilization engaged in its most significant activities; The Odyssey depicts the archetype of the Western civilized individual. Mitchell doesn't draw that particular distinction but, first thing in the introduction, points out that most Homeric scholars believe one Homer wrote The Iliad, and another Homer, The Odyssey. The second quotes the first often but varies so in vocabulary, grammar, geographical perspective, theology, and moral values that it's unlikely he's the same poet. Many ordinary readers have found The Odyssey more modern, by which they mean more like a contemporary novelmore psychological, more personal because of the strong point-of-view characters, Odysseus and his son, Telemachus. The Odyssey is also scarier, a very au courant quality. There are many more violent deaths in The Iliadthere's a war going on, after allbut nothing as ghoulishly terrifying (and starkly related by Mitchell) as what Polyphemus, the Laestrygonians, and Scylla do to Odysseus' crew. Stephen King, eat your heart out.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

November 4, 1996
Robert Fagles's 1990 translation of The Iliad was highly praised; here, he moves to The Odyssey. As in the previous work, he adroitly mixes contemporary language with the driving rhythms of the original. The first line reads: "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." Hellenic scholar Bernard Knox contributes extensive introductory commentary, providing both historical and literary perspective. Notes, a pronouncing glossary, genealogies, a bibliography and maps of Homer's world are included.