When Robert Fagles' translation of the "Iliad" was published in 1990, critics and scholars alike hailed it as a masterpiece. Now one of the great translators of our time presents us with the "Odyssey", Homer's best-loved poem, recounting Odysseus' wanderings after the "Trojan War". With wit and wile, the 'man of twists and turns' meets the challenges of gods and monsters, only to return after twenty years to a home besieged by his wife's suitors. In the myths and legends retold in this immortal poem, Fagles has captured the energy of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom.

About the Author

Homer was probably born around 725BC on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then really a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives. Both works attributed to Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey - are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Robert Fagles is Arthur W. Marks 1919 Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

Translator Fagles (comparative literature, Princeton Univ.) offers a new verse translation of the Odyssey, a worthy companion to his version of the Iliad (LJ 8/90). Joining the translations of Robert Fitzgerald, Richard Lattimore, and, more recently, Allan Mandelbaum, his version attempts to achieve readability and the vigor of the original, avoiding the anachronizing of Fitzgerald. At the same time he is more literal than Lattimore and Mandelbaum. As with his Iliad, this translation is accompanied by a long introduction, notes, and glossaries, provided by noted classicist Bernard Knox. Fagles's Iliad and Odyssey provide both the general reader and the student of literature a fine version of Homer in English.‘Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.

Gr 6 Up-Concise and briskly paced, this dynamic comic-book version streamlines Homer's plot and zooms in on the all-out monster-trouncing, enchantress-encountering, death-defying action. The exploits of the square-jawed Odysseus are resplendent in bold lines and jewel tones while the fickle gods and goddesses shimmer in translucent hues. A reader-grabbing intro to the epic. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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.

Mr. Fagles has been remarkably successful in finding a style that is of our time and yet timeless. (Richard Jenkyns, "The New York Times Book Review")