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halthemonarch 's review for:
Mythology
by Edith Hamilton
I’m pissed that this book is shorter than Midnight Sun, it feels like it took me forever and a day to even get halfway through it. I’ve had this book since high school (in fact, it’s from my high school library) and I didn’t take a run at it until I got a hold of the audiobook copy from my local library. Admittedly, I don’t do well with the short story format but Greek and Roman Mythology is something I've always been interested in and novelty trumped that particular reading preference of mine.
Hamilton's summaries are considered modern classics, as Ovid and the Iliad were the ancient classics. The way she tells it, the prefaces of each chapter, and annotations on each story that leads into another make this book an excellent resource for people who want to read about many headed tales. For example Hamilton will say in Ovid is poetic about this but Homer was pragmatic or descriptive about that, and then proceed to tell the tale both ways. Hamilton has an incredible voice for storytelling and I was engrossed with each chapter and each variant of a tale. I wish she had delved deeper into Norse myth though, because I know there's much more to it than the legend of Ragnarok and Loki's fatal prank against Balder-- but I'm sure I can find another book to fulfill that need. As New York Times says, Mythology is -"at once a reference book and a book which may be read for stimulation and pleasure." It's been sitting on my shelf since high school and I'm kicking myself for never having cracked it open in earnest.
Hamilton's summaries are considered modern classics, as Ovid and the Iliad were the ancient classics. The way she tells it, the prefaces of each chapter, and annotations on each story that leads into another make this book an excellent resource for people who want to read about many headed tales. For example Hamilton will say in Ovid is poetic about this but Homer was pragmatic or descriptive about that, and then proceed to tell the tale both ways. Hamilton has an incredible voice for storytelling and I was engrossed with each chapter and each variant of a tale. I wish she had delved deeper into Norse myth though, because I know there's much more to it than the legend of Ragnarok and Loki's fatal prank against Balder-- but I'm sure I can find another book to fulfill that need. As New York Times says, Mythology is -"at once a reference book and a book which may be read for stimulation and pleasure." It's been sitting on my shelf since high school and I'm kicking myself for never having cracked it open in earnest.