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The Odyssey
The classic tale of Odysseus’s return home in a stunning new translation.
THE ODYSSEY, which tells of Odysseus’s long voyage home after the battle of Troy, is one of the defining masterpieces of Western literature.
Populated by one-eyed man-eating giants, beautiful seductive goddesses, and lavishly hospitable kings and queens, it is an extraordinary work of the imagination, the original epic voyage into the unknown that has inspired other writing down through the ages – from ancient poems to modern fiction and films.
With its consummately modern hero, full of guile and wit, THE ODYSSEY is perfectly suited to our times.
Thanks to the scholarship and poetic power of the highly acclaimed Stephen Mitchell, this new translation recreates the energy and simplicity, the speed, the grace, and continual thrust and pull of the original, so that THE ODYSSEY’s ancient story bursts vividly into new life.
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THE ODYSSEY, which tells of Odysseus’s long voyage home after the battle of Troy, is one of the defining masterpieces of Western literature.
Populated by one-eyed man-eating giants, beautiful seductive goddesses, and lavishly hospitable kings and queens, it is an extraordinary work of the imagination, the original epic voyage into the unknown that has inspired other writing down through the ages – from ancient poems to modern fiction and films.
With its consummately modern hero, full of guile and wit, THE ODYSSEY is perfectly suited to our times.
Thanks to the scholarship and poetic power of the highly acclaimed Stephen Mitchell, this new translation recreates the energy and simplicity, the speed, the grace, and continual thrust and pull of the original, so that THE ODYSSEY’s ancient story bursts vividly into new life.
Reviews
Stephen Mitchell is one of the great translators, and his version of the Odyssey is a masterpiece of clarity, directness and a kind of blunt musicality which catches perfectly the pitch of the true Homeric voice.
Stephen Mitchell's faithful translation of the Odyssey has great vigor, and a plain eloquence that is quite free of pedantry. It does not plod. Its narrative drive is so compelling that the reader will find himself speaking the lines aloud, as I did.
This latest incarnation of the Odyssey leaves no doubt that Stephen Mitchell has made a deep connection to the tale's spiritual power, which he has managed to express with propulsive cadence and in exquisite detail. The bard sings again, this time at the banquet of Mitchell's ardent labor.
Yet again, one of today's gifted, knowing scholars and writers embraces one of the masterpieces of yore, and so doing offers us the Odyssey as a wise and stirring companion for our own personal voyage through time and life's many stirring, worrying, enabling moments.
This new translation is one of the best: clear and poetic without losing the essential kinetic energy of the first adventure tale.
