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The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) |  | Author: Homer
Creators: Peter Jones, E. V. Rieu
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
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Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 269
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Ed
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0140449116
Dewey Decimal Number: 883.01
EAN: 9780140449112
ASIN: 0140449116
Publication Date: January 30, 2003
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Product Description
An epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must test his bravery and cunning to the full.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 Visiting The Odyssey again September 6, 2010
Alan Gray (Wiltshire, UK)
I first read The Odyssey about 60 years ago when a new translation by E. V. Rieu was much publicised and available from Penguin. As a teenager I enjoyed it very much as an adventure story, about which I had heard. I have quite a few books and was confident that my copy was 'somewhere' when I recommended the Odyssey to a readers group to which I belong; it was accepted and added to the list and came up this last month. I could not find my copy; the library could not obtain a 'Rieu' copy, in time, so I visited my friendly Amazon website. I found the Rieu was still available but, in addition to the original, a later version is available that has been slightly revised by the son of E.V.; I ordered and have read it again. Although I read with a lifetime of experience behind me I really enjoyed it once again. This time, however, I have both the introduction by E V from 1946 and a DCHR Preface of 2002, which begins with'My Father E. V. ...' in which the son, DCHR, later refers to his father as EVR. It is obvious that both Father and Son love and respect Homer.
Read the story and then the DCHR Preface followed by the PVJ Introduction with His analysis of the construction of the 'plot' and why it is arranged in the way that it is.
Finally, I learned that the EVR translation gave us the very first book in the Penguin Classics series. A Really Fine package; you will be glad to own and treasure it. Just do not mislay it, you never know ...!
A classic classic July 23, 2010
Sontee
This beats Illiad by miles. Its so well written and translated just reads like a marvellous adventure novel. Its basically Phillip Pulman's Dark Materials Trilogy set in the eighth century BC!
A surprisingly readable classic July 25, 2009
D. R. Cantrell (London, United Kingdom)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having recently read The Iliad it's only sensible to move on to the Odyssey. The Odyssey is a much more approaching book for a modern reader. Of the flaws I noted in the Iliad, all are either absent or minimised in the Odyssey. There is still some waffle, although nowhere near as much, and characters are prone to speechifying when a simple "thankyou" would suffice.
The only real criticisms I have are that there is a ridiculous amount of gift-giving; that Odysseus is a pathological liar; and that the end is very abrupt.
On the first point: yes, I am aware that the story is set in a radically different society to that which we are now blessed with, and that people often demonstrate their wealth by ostentatious generosity. However, I think this goes too far. For example, while staying with the Phaeacian king, he is not only given gifts by the king, but the king commands everyone else present to also give him equally generous gifts.
The second, while playing a legitimate part in the story, as it is through guile and deceit that Odysseus gains admittance to his own home as it is being despoiled by yahoos, is taken too far and shows the hero in a poor light. In particular, when he is finally reunited with his father, Odysseus tells outrageous lies, putting his father in some distress. I'm afraid I'm with the Romans on this, Odysseus was a really rather obnoxious and dishonorable fellow.
Even so, you should, obviously, read this.
 An Intriging Tale March 31, 2009
C. Valcin (UK)
This is definitely one of those all time classics. I had the pleasure of studying this book and I'm glad that I got to read it in that context. Though this is a story of Odysseus' perils at finding his way home to his love Penelope, there is so much more to this tale than that which originally meets the eye. We are taken on an adventure to the bottom of the earth and then back again, meeting some perilous individuals including a Cyclops to Nymphs to monsters. All of this is linked in an intricate tale, much of it like poetry.
At times the text can seem rather dense as there are many references to Greek Gods and other things which can get a bit confusing. For this there are many great resources which can aid you with the text. Bar this, it is a great tale, which not only tells the tale of Odysseus but also gives great insight into Greek life and the Greek family
The ace who launched a thousand books November 25, 2008
Malcolm Black
I will avoid hubris by not attempting to rate "the Odyssey" per se! My five stars are for the translation by E.V. Rieu in the Penguin Classics edition, updated by his son and Peter Jones to make it even more readable for the current generation. The transparent, joyful prose makes this a superb experience for child or adult. It doesn't read like a translation. There is no tortured struggle with the Greek. There are no King James' bible archaisms. I can't see how it could be made more accessible or joyful for modern readers. If a teenager watches a film of this epic and asks for the "book version", give them this this! They will instantly get the message that the film version is never better than the original book.
One reviewer had trouble digesting some paragraphs. Were they reading a different translation? I had little trouble digesting this; the only (slight) difficulty was with the large cast of characters. Greek Gods are dropped in without much explanation, and as I'm not an expert on Ancient Greek Myth I needed some help with placing these endlessly interesting characters. Fortunately the editors provide a superb glossary! This gives you a short sentence about every place and person involved -- no more or less than you need to get on with the story.
Rieu's translation was the first of the Penguin Classics,the series which he and Sir Andrew Lane founded. His aim was to translate classics into good modern English. So I guess he thought he had to to a really good job on this first book. And he did! The vision of founding the Penguin Classics came to him while translating the Odyssey aloud to his wife and daughters while bombs dropped on London during the blitz. You might call him "the ace who launched a thousand books".
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
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