The Odyssey (Penguin Classics)

Excellent blank verse translation. Close to the original, very readable. Emily Wilson's version is good too.

If you love The Odyssey then you should love this too. Fagles translation is a great read and this production is fabulous thanks to Ian McKellen. Some people say his voice tails off towards the end of each line and while sometimes that is true, it is hardly noticeable and is just part of how he is conveying the story. I had read it first and that makes it easier. But having this on in the car or while you are doing something around the house is absolutely brilliant. Definitely recommended.

Excellent, gripping version far better than more modem fantasy muck

This is a real delight; the text is clear without sounding trivial, and Sir Ian reads with great energy and conviction. My only concern - and I hesitate to say this about one of our greatest actors - is that he tends to let his voice fade away before the end of the last word in a phrase or sentence: so 'He was astonished' becomes 'He was astoni'. Only once or twice has this actually stopped me from understanding the text - you usually get enough of the word to guess - but I find it distracting, as if you can never quite relax into the experience, because you are always listening out for the next vanishing syllable. I would still heartily recommend the CDs, but I would be interested to know if anyone else finds this a problem.

A wonderful translation of an amazing text. Highly recommended. I hope you find my review helpful.

I thought long and hard about buying this version of the Odyssey, as opposed to accessing the free versions by other translators that are readily available online. In the end I'm glad I paid out for Fagles' translation as it is a pleasure to read. The Odyssey itself is also a fantastic tale and well worth a read. Highly recommended.

This is an a really good edition. Robert Fagles translation is by far the best and it is very readable. I highly recommend this edition

Fully recommend this book. What you are actually buying here is this particular modern translation, which is superb. Bought this as part of an online classics course and found it very readable even though unused to readibg such works.

Kitap seçtiğim yayınevine ait değil. İade.

Reviewing and rating The Iliad and The Odyssey, both being among the oldest existing written works from Europe, and which continue to hold influence on Western literature, makes it almost unfair to judge with a contemporary mindset. The embraced ideologies, i.e. philosophies, religions, principles, and aesthetics that have influenced any given literary period, including any accepted or required structures or styles for a story, have evolved over thousands of years. Estimates indicate these two epics were written sometime between 1200 BC and 850 BC. Many contemporary readers will simply dismiss The Iliad or The Odyssey after reading only a few lines, finding them too complicated or confusing to embark upon. The differentiation of mortals from gods and goddesses is not immediately made clear in some translations—just names given. Redundant descriptions like “winged fowls” or a reference to Hades, Zeus, Calypso or a Muse can quickly lose the interest of an average contemporary reader. The repetition of words and phrases, where the author or authors (Homeric question considered) tried to duplicate the telling of these epics as they were originally sung by bards hundreds of years before into written epics, can also be off-putting, especially among the many translated interpretations over the years. How I might have rated either of these two epics had I lived and read them when they were first written is impossible to say. Having read a 20th century English translation of them within the current literary period of the 21st century, I give five stars without hesitation. After a little research, I chose Robert Fagles’ translation written in unrhymed iambic pentameter or blank verse, a style originating in the 16th century, for the best balance of accuracy and readability. I didn’t care for the popular translations by Alexander Pope, who translated both epics into heroic couplets—a form of rhyming poetry that came about in the 17th century—eloquent as they may be written. Richmond Lattimore’s translations are perhaps the most accurate English translations, attempting to maintain the dactylic hexameter in which the original epics were written. Homer’s epics were simply his written retelling of stories that minstrel poets had been singing for centuries before his time. I suppose translators are simply doing the same thing in their own writing style. When you hear someone detail an event that took place and then hear the same event recounted by someone else, one person’s version may appeal to you more than the other, right? In any case, The Odyssey was my favorite between the two, though both were exciting—sometimes emotional—great stories.

Ótima tradução, com ótimas notas iniciais explicativas.

Excelente tradução, senão a melhor.

beautiful translation nobody could do better