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The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) | 
| Author: Homer
Creators: Peter Jones, E. V. Rieu
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy New: £4.01
You Save: £2.98 (43%)
New (51) Used (22) Collectible (1) from £1.22
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 4312
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0140449116
Dewey Decimal Number: 883.01
EAN: 9780140449112
ASIN: 0140449116
Publication Date: January 30, 2003
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 The ace who launched a thousand books November 25, 2008
I will avoid hubris by not attempting to rate "the Odyssey" per se! My five stars are for the translation by E.V. Rieu in the Penguin Classics edition, updated by his son and Peter Jones to make it even more readable for the current generation. The transparent, joyful prose makes this a superb experience for child or adult. It doesn't read like a translation. There is no tortured struggle with the Greek. There are no King James' bible archaisms. I can't see how it could be made more accessible or joyful for modern readers. If a teenager watches a film of this epic and asks for the "book version", give them this this! They will instantly get the message that the film version is never better than the original book.
One reviewer had trouble digesting some paragraphs. Were they reading a different translation? I had little trouble digesting this; the only (slight) difficulty was with the large cast of characters. Greek Gods are dropped in without much explanation, and as I'm not an expert on Ancient Greek Myth I needed some help with placing these endlessly interesting characters. Fortunately the editors provide a superb glossary! This gives you a short sentence about every place and person involved -- no more or less than you need to get on with the story.
Rieu's translation was the first of the Penguin Classics,the series which he and Sir Andrew Lane founded. His aim was to translate classics into good modern English. So I guess he thought he had to to a really good job on this first book. And he did! The vision of founding the Penguin Classics came to him while translating the Odyssey aloud to his wife and daughters while bombs dropped on London during the blitz. You might call him "the ace who launched a thousand books".
 Better left at sea June 27, 2008
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
I thought this book would be great, an interesting adventure and my first step into the literary world of greek classics. But after this, I am not rushing out to buy another greek classic.
The story is good, and the interesting mythological creatures and encounters are what kept me reading it. The characters make a square look less two dimensional and I can't, in all honesty, say I liked the good ones. I found Odysseus very arrogant and the gods hypocritical and the actions of them morally questionable. The style was also patronizing in places, by always addressing characters with an adjective describing their character, which we should make our own minds about, and not be force fed what we should think of them.
Perhaps if I was born at the time this was written, I might have enjoyed it more, however, in this century, I can't understand what is particularly good about it as a piece of literature. Therefore, for a good novel in its own right, avoid this.
 Excellent story but hard to read November 18, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I recently finished this book and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I also found it hard to read. I read this book regularly but often couldn't remember what I had just read. I would also end up re-reading paragraphs I had read only minutes before, as I couldn't remember reading them at all! The funny thing however, is that I could tell you exactly what happens in the correct order so clearly it was being absorbed. This appears to be a problem that affected only myself however, so maybe the style of writing wasn't quite suited to me.
If you have an interest in Classics or are working your way through the classic novels (such as myself), I highly recommend this book. I can guarantee that you will really enjoy it.
The Odyssey in 24 words September 3, 2007
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Mediterranean cruise with divine beauties and blind shepherds, swine and swingers, Scylla and Charybdis and Hades minitour. With wife at home taking double turns.
A classic at its best August 13, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The Odyssey covers the twenty years Odysseus is away from his family and friends in Ithica. The first ten years or so are spent in Troy where he fights on the side of the Greeks against the Trojans (see The Iliad) and concieves the idea of the famous "wooden horse". The remainder of his time away is spent on an ill-fated journey home where he looses all of his crew at various stages.
The main cause of delay is due to Poseidan the Earth-Shaker after he blinds his son, Cyclops Polyphemus. He is then detained by Circe (a demi-Goddess who is a witch). After an incident where she turns some of his crew into pigs, she sends him to the Underworld to speak to the seer Teiresias to learn how to return homw. After he leaves he faces the Sirens and the monsters Scylla and Charybdis who carry off some of his crew. The rest of his crew are killed after eating the Sun-Gods cattle on the island Thrinacia as punnishment. Odysseus is then detained 7 more years on the island of Ogygia where he washes up by Calypso. She is trying to get him to marry her and become immortal.
Eventally he gets back to his homeland with a little help from the Phaeacians and the Goddess Athena disguises him. While he has been away his wife has been beset by suitors who are trying to win her hand (assuming Odysseus is dead) in marriage and are treating his house and son Telemachus with disresect. Eventually father and son team up to kill all the suitors and all are finally reunited.
I really enjoyed this book, more so than The Iliad. I definately recommend reading The Iliad and then The Odyssey, not just because it makes sense chronologically but also because this is a more enjoyable story. The only problem I really had was that poor sensible Penelope is never consulted or trusted by her son or husband. Telemachus runs off and doesn't tell her and then Odysseus returns and tells his son and old nurse, but not his wife who has spent the last twenty years crying and mourning his loss. Pretty heartless really!
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