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Book Cover for: The Iliad, Homer

The Iliad

Homer

Reader Score

82%

82% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Great

Based on 9 reviews on

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THE WORLD'S GREATEST WAR NOVEL

Humans and gods wrestling with towering emotions. Men fighting to the death amid devastation and destruction. Perhaps the Western world's first and best storyteller, Homer draws the reader in with bated breath. His masterful tale contains some of the most famous episodes in all of literature: the curse on the prophet Cassandra; the siege of Troy; the battle between Hector and Achilles; the face that launched a thousand ships; and of course, the deception of the Trojan Horse. To this day, the heroism and adventure of The Iliad have remained unmatched in song and story.

In his "plain English" translation, W.H.D. Rouse makes a point to keep the language as colloquial as Homer's original was, never pedantic, high-flown, or clichéd. In fact, it is the nearest contemporary English equivalent to the epic Homer's audience heard at their banquets.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Signet Book
  • Publish Date: Dec 1st, 2015
  • Pages: 416
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.40in - 4.40in - 1.10in - 0.45lb
  • EAN: 9780451474346
  • Categories: Ancient & ClassicalEpic

About the Author

Seth L. Schein is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Davis. He works mainly on Homeric epic, Attic tragedy, and receptions of classical literature and culture. His books include The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad, Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays [editor], and the translation of Sophokles: Philoktetes.

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What people are saying

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Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"A great poem cannot be fully translated unless by a poet almost as great as its original author...W.H.D. Rouse...retells the story in fast, modern, colloquial prose. It is the first version I have ever seen which drives on as rapidly as the original and therefore it makes an excellent introduction to Homer. This is the translation to read first, if you have never read The Iliad."--The New York Times Book Review