The Iliad - Penguin Clothbound Classics (Hardback)
  • The Iliad - Penguin Clothbound Classics (Hardback)
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The Iliad - Penguin Clothbound Classics (Hardback)

(author), (translator), (author of notes,author of introduction,editor,translator), (translator)
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£18.99
Hardback 560 Pages
Published: 06/11/2014
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Part of the Penguin’s Clothbound Classics range.

A stunning Penguin clothbound edition of Homer's great epic, in E. V. Rieu's classic translation.

The Iliad is the first and the greatest literary achievement of Greek civilization - an epic poem without rival in the literature of the world, and the cornerstone of Western culture.

The story centres on the critical events in the last year of the Trojan War, which lead to Achilleus' killing of Hektor and determine the fate of Troy. But Homer's theme is not simply war or heroism.

With compassion and humanity, he presents a universal and tragic view of the world, of human life lived under the shadow of suffering and death, set against a vast and largely unpitying divine background. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.

Seven Greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC), the poet to whom the composition of the Iliadand Odyssey are attributed. The Iliad is the oldest surviving work of Western literature, but the identity - or even the existence - of Homer himself is a complete mystery, with no reliable biographical information having survived. 

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780141394657
Number of pages: 560
Weight: 681 g
Dimensions: 204 x 138 x 38 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS
“Fitzgerald has solved virtually every problem that has plagued translators of Homer. The narrative runs, the dialogue speaks, the military action is clear, and the repetitive epithets become useful text rather than exotic relics.” –Atlantic Monthly

“Fitzgerald’s swift rhythms, bright images, and superb English make Homer live as never before…This is for every reader in our time and possibly for all time.”–Library Journal

“[Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” –The Yale Review

“What an age can read in Homer, what its translators can manage to say in his presence, is one gauge of its morale, one index to its system of exultations and reticences. The supple, the iridescent, the ironic, these modes are among our strengths, and among Mr. Fitzgerald’s.” –National Review

With an Introduction by Gregory Nagy

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“Window into another world”

Homer used the arrival of writing to draw on the poetic tradition of generations fashion a new type of artwork, the epic, an early iron age window onto the bronze age. The Iliad describes a few weeks of intense... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 158

“Buy this book”

I love this book: the translation is clear and powerful - it propels you straight into the carnage of bronze age warfare and politics, where you feel the heat and the dust, hear the crash of armour and see the blood... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 113

“A corner stone of the Western canon...”

First of all, I bought the Rieu translation of this ancient text about 8 years ago, and attempted to read it on three occasions, failing on each one. I was told the new Hammond translation was much more crisp and... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 62

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