Customer Reviews

The Iliad of Homer - Alexander Pope

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Pope's Iliad was published to great fanfare and is a tour de force today. I cannot read Greek, but the translation, almost directly line by line, matches well with the translations of Fagles, Lattimore and Fitzgerald. Pope writes in his accustomed heroic couplets with a clarity and skill really matchless. Despite his ability to vary the rhythm of his lines, most readers will find the iambic pentameter couplets a bit stultifying over time. For poetic power, for lines that recapitulate something of the Iliad's themes of war and death, of hacking meaning out of life, for drama and speeches, I prefer Fitzgerald.
That said, Pope's Iliad (I don't know how he does this while remaining faithful to Homer) communicates Pope's own opinion's on government and human relations developed as they were by 18th century England. He is an ardent monarchist, fears disorder and mob rule more than tyranny, has a gentle, almost finicky distaste for the rough and tumble of any sort of tumult. Pope's versifying is remarkable, his style and opinions will strike modern readers as old fashioned, even anachronistic, but this remains an interesting translation of Homer plus a revelation of Pope himself and a political snapshot of post-restoration England.

I had been waiting so long to find a reasonably priced all-new copy of Pope's Iliad translation, I was very excited about this one appearing in stocks again so I ordered it right away. I would recommend going for another 'edition' of Pope's Iliad translation by another publisher if slightly higher pricing is not a problem for you. The quality of the paper is fine but difficult to say the same about the quality of the print. Long readings of this book is bound to be unpleasant and not so easy on the eyes since the font choice and the ink makes it look as if it's a photocopy of typewritten pages. Some letters appear unusually strong on some pages, and smudgy on others. Last but not least, a book of this size and length surely deserves a better, much stronger paperback cover. Even college course textbooks known to be used for a term or two have better paperback covers today.