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The Odyssey

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The Odyssey

Written by: Homer, Robert Fagles - translator
Narrated by: Ian McKellen
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The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles

Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Christopher Nolan

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy." So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey, which Jasper Griffin in the New York Times Book Review hails as "a distinguished achievement."

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of an everyman's journey through life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general listener, to captivate a new generation of Homer's students. Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature Classics Poetry
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What the critics say

“[Robert Fitzgerald’s translation is] a masterpiece . . . An Odyssey worthy of the original.” –The Nation

“[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

“[In] Robert Fitzgerald’s translation . . . there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand, and this line-by-line vigilance builds up into a completely credible imagined world.”
–from the Introduction by Seamus Heaney
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I adore this book. The narration can’t be beat.
If only he would narrate the Iliad.

Excellent use of a credit

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A classic tale that is wonderfully read by Ian Mcellen, he brings the story to life!

Ian Mcellen brings this story to life!

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It really was well read. The only downside was the music between chapters and other places; that could have been done without with no loss at all.

Really good narration.

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This is actually my second purchase of this particular version of this audiobook. My first was during university with the tape version bought through my campus bookstore. It is basically the identical version that is presented here today. Which means as with the original tapes there are some problems. There is some audio level mistakes, some pops, and blips over the presentation of the material but nothing that really overall hinders the recording. Everything is understandable especially if you are following along with the written work (which for me, actually really helps me to understand). And with this version being digital, it is much easier to take on the road with you. Its a lot harder to find a tape player that works in a vehicle these days.

As for the story, The Odyssey is one of those stories you either love or you hate. Its long, and windy and is written in epic poetry using lots of hyperbole, metaphors, and invocation but when you understand the story it becomes thrilling. You rise up with Odysseus and come crashing down with him in every movement. The amount of suffering one man goes through to return home is outrageous and you hope that something good happens to him only to realize that there is too much story left for something not to happen. You feel with the characters even though their stories are usually told through others. And that was the point of these stories. To be told to others, to entertain others and to teach and that is what The Odyssey does. It teaches numerous themes through the stories that it presents and you can find those themes in countless stories because of The Odyssey. Overall I give The Odyssey a high regard. It is one of those stories everyone has to read, everyone should read even if they battle through it because it is worth it in the end.

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What can you say about "The Odyssey"...

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That weird digital pan flute sound clip that plays every so often, it sucks, and in no way benefits the story. Its obnoxious.

I only have one complaint

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