The Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) | Homer

The Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) | Homer | An Enjoyable read for the Homer-less

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The Iliad (Penguin...

	The Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Homer Penguin Classics, 1998 - 704 pages average customer review:based on 139 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The unknown Homer.

(Before I start, let me presume you know the story).If people want you to read Homer they say things like: he's the father of western literature or: he stood at the cradle of our civilization. They probably are right but let me give you another reason to read the Iliad: the humor of Homer. I give two examples. When things turn sour for the Greeks and the Trojan soldiers almost destroyed their camp, Nestor - the military advisor for he's to old to fight - calls the young Greek soldiers at his side and tells them how brave and invincible he was when hé was young. You can imagine the Greeks listening politely but impatiently to Nestor's sermon. What Nestor means is that the youth of today is worthless. I've heard this before. What makes you smile is the bragging of Nestor and the fact that apparently the youngsters are worthless since three thousand years. Later on, when some of the gods reproach Zeus with not helping the Trojans, Zeus answers: 'You know my wife! If she finds out I'm helping Troy she will be mad at me!' If Homer was the father of literature then Zeus was the father of the henpecked husbands. If you are reluctant to read Homer, try to discover
some other examples of Homer's humor

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An Enjoyable read for the Homer-less

I'm a Junior in college taking a class on Joyce's "Ulysses," but I had never read "The Iliad," nor "The Odyssey," and I thought that this would be the best time to finally conquer Homer.

I thought Fagles did a solid job creating a lively, modern translation for Homer's text, but because I'm not a Homeric scholar I don't know how accurate he was to the original text. However, anyone who finds him or herself "Homer-less" should definitely peruse through this edition of "The Iliad" because I feel that Fagles accomplishes a very important goal in his translation, he modernizes it so readers today can feel the emotions that Homer wanted his listeners to feel when he recited the epoch.

So if you're feeling Homer-less, and you're interested in reading something before "The Odyssey" or Joyce's "Ulysses," I highly suggest this edition of "The Iliad." Even if you just want a good book to read that isn't a Joycean text, nor a trashy pop culture novel, give Fagles' translation serious consideration because you'll enjoy it - I guarantee it.

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A enjoyable, readable translation.

This book is excellent! I remember trying to read The Iliad in highschool and it was an unbearable read. I doubt I read more than two chapters/books before giving up. This translation is clear, engaging and easy to follow. I recommend it to anyone thinking about reading The Iliad.

very pleased

I'm not one to get drawn into the debate on the merits of this or that translation. I really enjoyed the readability of this effort; it flowed really well. It has been my plan to reread many of the classics that I haven't touched in the years since school and I found this version of the Iliad to be much more enjoyable than I had remembered. I also got alot from the introduction which provided some solid insight into the analysis of the texts as well as good look at the history of the piece itself. All in all...very well done.

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Not the biggest fan of this translation...

Fortunately, Homer is so wonderful that even fairly imaginative renderings of the text, like Fagles', can't obscure his genius.

I guess I have a bit of a problem with Fagles' translation. When I read Homer, I want to read Homer, not Robert Fagles re-writing Homer. This version reminds me of the comment made to Alexander Pope after he published his version of "The Iliad" - "a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer".

This translation is kind of a modern play on the Fitzgerald - something of an "artistic" version rendered into a kind of de rigeur semi-elliptical poetry-speak, relying on a reconfiguration of lines and sentences, replacement of Homer's own phrases, etc. If that's your bag, by all means get this.

But for me, the best translation out there is that which translates Homer as faithfully as possible consistent with comprehensible English. Fagles' cavalier handling of the source text eliminates this as the "best" translation for me.

Both the Loeb and Lattimore versions are very faithful, but I think some readers may find them fairly difficult, and then stop reading the book altogether, which would be a great shame since The Iliad is well worth reading even in the worst translation.

My two cents is that the translation out there which does the best job of combining fidelity to the original with readability is the Jones/Rieu put out by Penguin. It doesn't have the packaging of the Fagles nor the great essay by Bernard Knox in the front, but I think it does the best job at maintaining transparency, really letting Homer shine through. (But if you have the stomach for the Loeb, you could go hardcore and try that, too. But don't try this unless you're familiar with the entire story first...).

Whatever translation you get, I also recommend buying a CliffNotes to get the necessary background information. Another great resource is Malcolm Willcock's commentary, which I used while I was reading this. If you're going to take the time to read a classic, you might as well try to get everything out of it you can.

Good luck. I hope this review helped someone.

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