Customer Reviews

The Iliad and The Odyssey

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This review is divided into two parts, first a review of the translation itself and then a review of the Kindle edition.

Translation:
Homer's stories are great and in this translation extremely easy to read. They were originally written in dactyllic hexameter. This is a very difficult metric to translate into modern poetry and some translations (Chapman's and Pope's) that attempt a strict conversion suffer from being too difficult to follow (the convolutions necessary to make the story fit make them very difficult to follow).

The Butler translation does away with all attempts at poetry and is written in prose. This makes the story very easy to follow. One glaring problem is that while the Iliad follows the original Greek (and hence the Greek names), the Odyssey suddenly changes to the character's Roman names and Zeus becomes Jove, Poseidon becomes Neptune and so on. This makes the story extremely difficult to follow as every character changes name.

Kindle edition:
In terms of the Kindle conversion, this was not well done. While it does not suffer from broken lines as other Kindle editions do, there are two big problems: 1) a lack of a table of content, and 2) this edition has not been indexed. Not being indexed means that you cannot use the search feature to jump to a specific book or chapter.

As a reference, The Iliad starts in location 24 and the Odyssey at location 6202.

While I am sure many will love this translation, I found myself several pages into it with no clue what Homer was trying to say to me. I will try Fagle's translation instead; it costs more but appears more readable (at least for me).

What made the experience of listening to The Iliad & The Odyssey the most enjoyable?
The story for those who like such a classic is fabulous. I wont go into story details as most know the story and other reviews have hashed it out. This type of read isnt for everyone but for people into the more flamboyant classic writings, Homer is wonderful.The narrator I feel did an absolutely fabulous job. This isnt an easy book to narrate and he did it with clarity, great pronunciation, and gave a poetic and enjoyable audio for the story and its characters. His voice was pleasant and it felt like he was telling the story rather than reading the story. I have read the Iliad and the Odyssey before but to have it told to you really brings a life to the story thats even more enjoyable than reading it. Some stories are better told than read and this is one of them especially when you have as a good of a Narrator as John Lescault.

Who was your favorite character and why?
I always liked Achilles in the Iliad. His persona just stands out. He is a character that appears larger than life at times. He is stubborn, bold, determined, yet emotions cut to the quick at times.Odysseus in the Odyssey. His journey was one of many trials and tribulations but he prevailed.

Which character - as performed by John Lescault - was your favorite?
He did them all very well. I cant pick just one.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes but it was to long to do that. LOL I listened to it every chance I had and it was done in about 1 week.

The text is excellent (it's the Iliad after all!) and the illustrations are nice. I live in Ireland and they're included in so it's really a nice Kindle book.

Thumbs up for Homer!

There is never a book called The Iliad by homer in English--it's always by Homer via a good or bad translator and I simply dislike and distrust any pubication afraid to say who its translator is on the front or back cover. Thus I heartily dislike this pretended non-translation of the Iliad, by Homer, which really means, it's all Greek (Achaean) to me!

It's great having both of these books in one cover. Not sure about the other review. No typos here.

I loved the story told in the book, and it came in excellent condition, shipped fast, and was lowest price. Thanks

This review is for the Kindle edition and not a review of the classic stories themselves (they are fabulous). I had no problem with The Iliad, the format was good and as easy to read as The Iliad can be. However, I was very disappointed when I got to The Odyssey because the translation went from the Greek names in the Iliad to the Roman names in the Odyssey. What a let down to get all the way through the Iliad, look forward to the next book, and to have the names changed on me! Despite what Shakespeare may have thought, names do matter.

Guess its back to my tried and true paper copies.

The Iliad by Homer (Illustrated). Translated by Alexander Pope, with notes by the Rev. Theodore Alois Buckle. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

Why read the Iliad? For one thing, it's where Western literature begins. The themes of the Iliad - fate and free will - have been dealt with by writers through the ages, and continue now.

Yes there are two typos on the back cover. "Staring" should be starring, and "import" should be important. I won't buy a book from a publisher that can't even have an error free cover.