Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Odyssey

I've read a different version of Homer's work but I was intrigued by this one and I have to say that I do love Wilson's translation of this epic poem.
Her use of modern language and choice of iambic pentameter for her translation felt new and contemporary and it was easier to read and visualize for me. This alone was a challenge as she managed to keep the same number of verses from the original Greek!
I never saw the big hero that others did in Odysseus, yes he had adventures and some were heroic indeed, but the man himself ...no I never truly saw it and in Wilson's translation I get some vindication as here we see a complicated man, an unreliable narrator to his own quests, a mischief maker, a doubter of his wife who he left alone for 20+ years while he himself is a huge flirt.
Wilson's translation is quite honestly a great read and a challenging one that makes you wonder about previous translations but even the violence is felt to be more violent and brutal and I can't tell if that's the modernized wording or if it was always there just worded differently so that it didn't come across as such.
All in all, I'm tempted to read Wilson's take on the Illiad.

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mxpringle's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I found this interesting to analyze because of the ways that rhetoric is used to have a more powerful analysis of what it means to share stories through poetry. I appreciated having read this because it's a classic that is referenced so often in other works. However, it is relatively boring and dense for the things that happen within the poem, and the characters are incredibly unlikeable. If you're interested in Greek mythology for the plot, this may not be what you're interested in, but it can be more enjoyable in more of an academic setting.

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meganpbennett's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Many years ago, I helped clean out Dr. Mandelbaum's office when he retired, taking box after box of books to the library to see what could be and what should be added to the various library collections,. Manuscripts, books he'd written, translations. I knew he was a Dante scholar, but I didn't realize that he'd also translated Homer and Virgil (Virgil makes a lot of sense, given the role Virgil plays in The Divine Comedy).

Like many people, I'd never read The Odyssey. I knew a bit of the story, but had never read the original text. I knew a little bit about the various translators, and was thrilled with Dr Wilson released her translation, but never read it. I've read enough Greek plays and Roman histories to know that I wasn't really a fan of the literature of that time period.

I finally read it when the library where I work used it as part of our "Read the book, see the movie" series. It's very interesting, but it's also very long. Like a lot of classical literature from the Greek and Roman era, it's a lot of words to describe things that could have been said in one or two. It's hard to get into, since it's in verse, not prose, but once you get into it, it's fun to read.

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khymihr's review against another edition

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adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

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