The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles. Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Christopher Nolan.
"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."
So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of Homer's Odyssey — hailed by Jasper Griffin in the New York Times Book Review as "a distinguished achievement." If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey through life. Odysseus's reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once the timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.
In the myths and legends retold here — one-eyed giants and sea monsters, witches and beautiful temptresses, the descent into the underworld and the long-awaited homecoming to Penelope — Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given readers an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb introduction and textual commentary provide insightful background for general reader and scholar alike.
This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition features French flaps and deckle-edged paper — a beautifully crafted edition designed to be kept, gifted, and reread for a lifetime.
Praise for Robert Fagles' translation
"Wonderfully readable… Just the right blend of roughness and sophistication." — Ted Hughes
"Robert Fagles is the best living translator of ancient Greek drama, lyric poetry, and epic into modern English." — Garry Wills, The New Yorker
"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
