Overall thoughts on the book:
I was impressed at how easy the book was to read. I’m not a very big fan of poetry so the style of this historic book was intimidating. I liked how Emily Wilson chose to translate the classic tale.
So when most translators translate very old texts (around 3000 years old!), they choose to use Shakespearian English or English that sounds much like the King James Bible. That type of English isn’t easily understandable to most modern English speakers.
Emily Wilson realized that 400 years ago English is really not much closer to 3000 years ago Greek than today’s English is to 3000 years ago Greek. Rather than using obscure English, Emily Wilson decided to use very modern, albeit formal, English.
The use of current English makes it so that current readers are able to appreciate the ancient story as the people did when it was first read.
Now obviously it’s still a very strange story and it’s still written as a poem so it’s not the easiest read but it is less convoluted than many other translations.
I enjoyed the introduction even though it was around 80 pages long. I thought it was worth the read because it allowed you to understand her reasoning for writing the way that she did and it provided an understanding of the customs in and around the Mediterranean at the time of the story. Understanding a story like the Odyssey would be very confusing without the introduction as the world was so different 3000 years ago.
I also like that Wilson kept the same number of lines as the original text. It made it seem even more like I was able to read the original without having to learn Greek.
More details on the book:
I don’t really want to do a review on the story. It’s so old and most people at least know bits and pieces of the story so there’s plenty to read online about the story. I will say I find it funny that, I believe, none of Odysseus’s men died in the Trojan war but they all died on what should have been a relatively short trip home. Probably should’ve put their faith in someone else.
Most of the action happens in just four or five books, but I thought the whole thing was interesting and worth reading. To the original author I would say that maybe there could have been some edits. A lot of the characters have long speeches that can be difficult to get through but over all the story is fun and kinda weird. I liked it.
Final thoughts:
I really enjoyed the book. I’m planning to read Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad soon so I’ll do a review of that too but I’m sure it won’t be much different than this one. I would probably read this book again in a few years and I have personally recommended this book to a friend.
P.S. Have y’all listened to Jorge Rivera-Herrans’ Epic!? It’s about Odysseus. It’s really good I think. I listened along as I read and it gave more emotion to Odysseus. As I am writing this review, he is not yet finished with his albums.
Bayous and Books 