[6A5]∎ Libro Gratis The Iliad / The Odyssey Homer Robert Fagles Bernard Knox 9780147712554 Books

The Iliad / The Odyssey Homer Robert Fagles Bernard Knox 9780147712554 Books

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The Iliad / The Odyssey Homer Robert Fagles Bernard Knox 9780147712554 Books

I thoroughly enjoyed the Robert Fagles translations of both “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad”, much more than I did the first time I read them in school. To even attempt a critique of the work itself would be to take yet another journey down a well-traveled road, so I will more usefully suggest why this particular translation is likely to be a good choice for most people.

If you are one of the 99% of us that will read these classics in translation and not in the original Greek, there are a dizzying number of English translations to choose from, some in prose and others in verse, spanning a century or more. If you are not reading this as assigned schoolwork (where that decision is generally made for you), you may be trying to decide if this edition, translated by Robert Fagles, is the one you should choose. My own belief is that for most modern readers, this translation is a great choice.

The Fagles editions of “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” are very readable translations in contemporary English, and I enjoyed them much more than I did the first time I read these classics (decades ago) in different translations. I would recommend these to those reading these classics for the first (and possibly only) time, particularly if doing so on one’s own and outside an academic environment.

Those deep enough into Homer to have different translations of these classics as their favorites will have read them more than once, and their first exposure would NOT have been the Fagles translation. I think a reader is more likely to return to these again if the first time reading them was a pleasant experience with literature one could understand.
My advice is not to worry too much about whether or not those older versions are “more faithful to the original.” This is academic hair-splitting for most readers. Every translation from the original can never be truly exact, and is only the translator’s interpretation. And when it comes to verse, poetry only really works in its original tongue; a translator can make the finished product read like poetry also, but it won’t be the SAME poetry, especially when the original and target languages are not compatible.

Both “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” include nice introductions by Bernard Knox with some nice commentary. These were long but not TOO long. There is also about a dozen pages of “Notes on the Translation” pointing to particular line numbers (although unfortunately not noted at the applicable points in the text itself, which would have been helpful). There is also a very helpful “Pronouncing Glossary” listing every name mentioned in the book, with a pronunciation and a short description of who it is; this helped a lot in keeping the names straight, especially in “The Iliad” where there are so many more of them.

I bought “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” as a boxed set, and the quality of the paperbacks and their bindings was very good. The covers are durable, and the sturdy spine and glued pages look secure enough to withstand many readings.


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The Iliad / The Odyssey Homer Robert Fagles Bernard Knox 9780147712554 Books Reviews

With many recent movies (e.g. Troy with Brad Pitt) and the older B/W versions, on cable lately, my husband expressed an interest in re-reading these classics. After examining the books available and their reviews, I settled on purchasing this version combining the two - Iliad and Odyssey. The boxed set and format/quality of these books really filled my idea as to how to have these classic stories on paper. My husband is already entralled in reading the first and has stated that he really enjoys the translation and feels that it does bring to life these stories in the original form, not the revamped current movie versions. The Greek mythos is a delight to his reading thus our conversations on the book so far has stimulated my interest in reading the books, too...it has been far too long since I even thought of revisiting these books once read in high school.

So the quality of these classics is very apparent in the appearance, binding and paper - hence the cost for this boxed set is 100% worth it! You won't be disappointed by the visual fact of the set, nor reading the translation of these classic books.
I did a lot of searching and sampling to figure out which translation to read. This one sucked me in. The language is so vivid and rich, I totally felt transported back 3000+ years ago, whenever this supposedly happened. I know it's a myth, but it felt real. Gooey violence with words is so much more shocking when your brain reassembles it from fragments of symbols translated and detranslated across thousands of years/cultures. Fagles did the job right.
Errors in formatting for the version are every couple of pages. Looks like the vendor used an OCR scan to make the ebook, but no one actually edited it. Iliad and Odyssey are both enjoyable, but a more user-friendly Table of Contents and less errors would have been ideal. The prose/novel format was amazing, and translation was great except for old archaic words and interchanged use of Roman instead of Greek names.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Robert Fagles translations of both “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad”, much more than I did the first time I read them in school. To even attempt a critique of the work itself would be to take yet another journey down a well-traveled road, so I will more usefully suggest why this particular translation is likely to be a good choice for most people.

If you are one of the 99% of us that will read these classics in translation and not in the original Greek, there are a dizzying number of English translations to choose from, some in prose and others in verse, spanning a century or more. If you are not reading this as assigned schoolwork (where that decision is generally made for you), you may be trying to decide if this edition, translated by Robert Fagles, is the one you should choose. My own belief is that for most modern readers, this translation is a great choice.

The Fagles editions of “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” are very readable translations in contemporary English, and I enjoyed them much more than I did the first time I read these classics (decades ago) in different translations. I would recommend these to those reading these classics for the first (and possibly only) time, particularly if doing so on one’s own and outside an academic environment.

Those deep enough into Homer to have different translations of these classics as their favorites will have read them more than once, and their first exposure would NOT have been the Fagles translation. I think a reader is more likely to return to these again if the first time reading them was a pleasant experience with literature one could understand.
My advice is not to worry too much about whether or not those older versions are “more faithful to the original.” This is academic hair-splitting for most readers. Every translation from the original can never be truly exact, and is only the translator’s interpretation. And when it comes to verse, poetry only really works in its original tongue; a translator can make the finished product read like poetry also, but it won’t be the SAME poetry, especially when the original and target languages are not compatible.

Both “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” include nice introductions by Bernard Knox with some nice commentary. These were long but not TOO long. There is also about a dozen pages of “Notes on the Translation” pointing to particular line numbers (although unfortunately not noted at the applicable points in the text itself, which would have been helpful). There is also a very helpful “Pronouncing Glossary” listing every name mentioned in the book, with a pronunciation and a short description of who it is; this helped a lot in keeping the names straight, especially in “The Iliad” where there are so many more of them.

I bought “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” as a boxed set, and the quality of the paperbacks and their bindings was very good. The covers are durable, and the sturdy spine and glued pages look secure enough to withstand many readings.