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Stephen Mitchell’s Iliad caused a stir on its publication and was chosen as one of the New Yorker’s favorite books for 2011. Now Mitchell brings his vivid poetic power to the Odyssey, the original epic voyage into the unknown that has inspired other creative work for millennia—from ancient poems to modern fiction and movies. With its consummately modern hero, full of guile and wit, always prepared to reinvent himself, the Odyssey is perfectly suited to our times. Mitchell’s translation brings it to life for those who have never read it before or have tried and given up.
Twentieth-century translators of the Odyssey were either too literal or overreached for poetic effects, which produced awkward syntax and made the story hard to follow. Mitchell’s version keeps the syntax straightforward and the diction close to spoken English, yet his meter re-creates the oceanic music of the ancient Greek. In addition, this is the first translation to benefit from advances in modern textual scholarship.
Just as Mitchell “re-energized the Iliad for a new generation” (The Sunday Telegraph), in his Odyssey he has created the noblest, clearest, and most captivating rendition of one of the defining masterpieces of Western literature.
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Imagine an entire civilization of clout chasing sociopaths, The Odyssey in a nutshell.
I liked this a lot more than I did when I read it in school. That's probably unsurprising: even for bookworms (perhaps especially for bookworms?) school has a tendency to analyze the fun out of anything. My memories of this story were of it printed in far-too-tiny font on the front and back of sheets of paper we had to staple together and keep in our binders, of small portions read aloud (badly) in the stumbling tones of bored classmates, and of a story that meandered through a few weeks of study (or at least they felt like a few weeks--it's hard to say how long it actually was) and then got wrapped up very suddenly at the end by the teacher, who must have realized she'd extended the lesson too long and had to fit something else in. I think hearing it read aloud made a big difference. The translator (Emily Wilson) said in her note at the start that she'd tried hard to ensure it sounded good spoken, and it honestly showed. I found myself repeating small bits as the narrator spoke, and it felt like it flowed really well. I won't pretend to know enough about poetry to say more than I liked how it sounded and I was aware of the language and flow without them getting in the way, which is honestly what I want in most things. There was none of the feeling of un-wrangling the words and meaning I had when I first read this in school. I'll leave the deconstruction of the actual story to people better qualified than I--I'm sure it's been done to death, and I'm sure anyone reading this has at least a cursory understanding of the problems faced by Odyessus on his way home. I had forgotten how much time we spent with Odysseus' son Telemachus, and that for all the story is named after him, Odysseus isn't necessarily even the main character of parts. If, like me, you are wondering if you missed something when you read this in school, this is definitely worth picking up and listening to. The story holds up quite well, and for all I knew how it ended, I was listening fascinated throughout.
I liked this a lot more than I did when I read it in school.That's probably unsurprising: even for bookworms (perhaps especially for bookworms?) school has a tendency to analyze the fun out of anything. My memories of this story were of it printed in far-too-tiny font on the front and back of sheets of paper we had to staple together and keep in our binders, of small portions read aloud (badly) in the stumbling tones of bored classmates, and of a story that meandered through a few weeks of study (or at least they felt like a few weeks--it's hard to say how long it actually was) and then got wrapped up very suddenly at the end by the teacher, who must have realized she'd extended the lesson too long and had to fit something else in.I think hearing it read aloud made a big difference. The translator (Emily Wilson) said in her note at the start that she'd tried hard to ensure it sounded good spoken, and it honestly showed. I found myself repeating small bits as the narrator spoke, and it felt like it flowed really well. I won't pretend to know enough about poetry to say more than I liked how it sounded and I was aware of the language and flow without them getting in the way, which is honestly what I want in most things. There was none of the feeling of un-wrangling the words and meaning I had when I first read this in school.I'll leave the deconstruction of the actual story to people better qualified than I--I'm sure it's been done to death, and I'm sure anyone reading this has at least a cursory understanding of the problems faced by Odyessus on his way home. I had forgotten how much time we spent with Odysseus' son Telemachus, and that for all the story is named after him, Odysseus isn't necessarily even the main character of parts.If, like me, you are wondering if you missed something when you read this in school, this is definitely worth picking up and listening to. The story holds up quite well, and for all I knew how it ended, I was listening fascinated throughout.