The Odyssey of Homer : a new verse translation / Bantam Classic ed.

    Book Description     Homer's epic chronicle of the Greek hero Odysseus' journey home from the Trojan War has inspired writers from Virgil to James Joyce. Odysseus survives storm and shipwreck, the cave of the Cyclops and the isle of Circe, the lure of the Sirens' song and a trip to the Underworld, only to find his most difficult challenge at home, where treacherous suitors seek to steal his kingdom and his loyal wife, Penelope. Favorite of the gods, Odysseus embodies the energy, intellect, and resourcefulness that were of highest value to the ancients and that remain ideals in out time.          In this new verse translation, Allen Mandelbaum--celebrated poet and translator of Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy --realizes the power and beauty of the original Greek verse and demonstrates why the epic tale of The Odyssey has captured the human imagination for nearly three thousand years.          From Library Journal     While Mandelbaum and the University of California Press are to be commended for attempting this new translation of The Odyssey , those of Robert Fitzgerald (Doubleday, 1963) and Richard Lattimore (Harper & Row, 1968) still remain the versions of choice for serious students who don't know Greek. Mandelbaum's poetry is fluent but lacks the feeling for the original that he brought to his fine translations of Virgil ( The Aeneid of Virgil , Bantam, 1976) and Dante ( The Divine Comedy: The Inferno , Bantam, 1982). There is a looseness in the translation that often misses the intricacy and interconnection of The Odyssey as a whole. Illustrated with engravings, this is essentially a coffee-table book.     - T.L. Cooksey, Arm strong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.          From AudioFile     Years ago, when this reviewer was casting his own radio dramatization of THE ODYSSEY, he asked the classicists who were advising him how the narrator, who was to represent the voice of Homer, should sound. "Like the setting sun," they said cryptically. Your humble servant had no idea what they were talking about. Then. Now I know because Derek Jacobi does sound like the setting sun. And, in spite of some Briticisms that may jar American ears, Mandelbaum's translation wonderfully communicates the swift, simple, virile dignity of the original. The beauty, the dramaDthey come from the unhurried, masterful Jacobi. Isn't it fitting that the greatest living actor of the English-speaking world should spellbind listeners with the greatest yarn ever told? Y.R. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner.          Book Dimension :     length: (cm)19.8 width:(cm)12.6