The Odyssey (Vintage Classics): Translated by Robert Fitzgerald by Homer (September 6, 2007) Paperback

I've read a few versions of The Odyssey. This was my favourite. There is an accessibility of language which opens up the storytelling while staying true to original poetic form.

For me, this is the only translation, apart from Aexander Pope's, that tries to make real poetry of Homer. Like Pope he uses all the resources of contemporary verse to match Homer where he can. He doesn't always suceed, but even his failures should be instructive to other translators. The visit to the world of the dead in Book 11 is a triumph: mysterious, sorrowful and succinct. His translations of Homer's "standard phrases" are another example of his craft. "Odysseus, master of landways and seaways", "the salt immortal sea", "the sun went down and all the ways grew dark" are some that stay with me.Fagles and Lombardo are excellent journeymen, but Fitzgereald is a master.If you haven't yet read the Odyssey I almost envy you. It's one the greatest things ever written and this translation is an open door to its treasures.

Haven't read it for years, but this translation brings back memories of why I enjoyed it so much.

Beautifully translated and a joy to read. The voice kept the authenticity of the epic and flowed with well-crafted ease.

I finished this book ages ago but really found it hard to write about, I have many 'thoughts'. If this review is a bit disorganised then that is why.I was a little dubious about starting the read – I had just finished the Iliad an I was still really caught up in it. Achilles was the great and tragic hero. Odysseus came across as being smug and sneaky, I didn't really like him. I wasn't sure that I wanted to invest the time and effort required to read the thing.Right from the start I felt that this was a strikingly different book from the Iliad. It feels looser, the tightly regimented but spectacular similes (trees being felled, lions hunting) and repeated phrases (darkness covered his eyes) that give the Iliad its sense of otherworldliness were pretty much absent. It seems more straightforward, more lyrical (the wine dark sea, the fish breeding sea). The structure is more complex also – there are stories within stories within stories, Odysseus tells his tale over and over – how much of it is true and how much is what he wants us to believe? His struggle to return home after years of war is something that we can all relate to. The trials that he has to overcome may seem extreme and fantastic but his yearning for home resonates today as it must have then. I found many sections in the last third of the book to be very moving.There is so much in here that is echoed in many stories written since, it seems surprisingly modern in many ways. Homer may not have been the first to have these ideas, he may just be the first whose work has survived, but it is easy to feel that this is the seed from which all off western literature has grown.Despite all of that, this is a really good read, the story quickly pulls you in. There are some nice reunions with characters from the Iliad. Odysseus's son, Telemecus, visits Nestor and Menelaus. Even Achilles makes and appearance, and Agamemnon too. I was happy to find that he met a sticky end eventually – after her was thoroughly unpleasant with impunity in the Iliad.I choose to go for the audiobook on this one – I find these epics ideal for listening in the car. After much research I choose the Fitzgerald translation with Dan Stevens as the reader.I highly recommend it.

Easy read

like new i was very pleased

Para la enseñanza muy bueno

It's absolutely lovely, thank you.