The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation [Hardcover]

Homer (Author), Robert Fitzgerald (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1998

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

One of the supreme masterpieces of world literature, the Homeric saga of the shipwrecks, wanderings, and homecoming of the master tactician Odysseus encompasses a virtual inventory of the themes and attitudes that have shaped Western culture. The tale of Odysseus’s encounters with such obstacles as Calypso, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, and the lotus-eaters, and his dramatic return to Ithaca and his patient wife, Penelope, forms a prototype for all subsequent Western epics.

Robert Fitzgerald’s much-acclaimed translation, fully possessing as it does the body and spirit of the original, has helped to assure the continuing vitality of Europe’s most influential work of poetry. This edition includes twenty-five new line drawings by Barnaby Fitzgerald.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[Robert Fitzgerald’s translation is] a masterpiece . . . An Odyssey worthy of the original.” –The Nation

“[Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” –The Yale Review

“[In] Robert Fitzgerald’s translation . . . there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand, and this line-by-line vigilance builds up into a completely credible imagined world.”
–from the Introduction by Seamus Heaney --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 510 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (November 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374224382
• ISBN-13: 978-0374224387
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #891,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fitzgerald is Homer's greatest emissary, February 19, 2000

By 

D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation (Hardcover)

Robert Fitzgerald's translations are among my favorites. While it is virtually impossible to translate Dactylic Hexameter into English, Fitzgerald still captures much of the power and majesty of Homer in his translation. Now, it is conceded that the Odyssey is technically inferior to the Iliad. It is for this reason that the majority of Homeric scholars believe he wrote the Odyssey first, THEN the Iliad. In any case, the Odyssey is still an awesome piece of literature and has enjoyed an enormous influence over all of western thought for close to 3,000 years. It is dubious to believe too many of today's poets / authors will still be remembered 2,500+ years from now. As always with classic literature, I would admonish anyone interested in reading the Odyssey to first consult everything that has gone before, such as the Judgment of paris & the Iliad, etc. The tale will make SO MUCH more sense that way. As one can see by the negative reviews to this work, Homer is not for those who are only interested in instant gratification. If you cannot get interested in a book which may take you a month to read & a lifetime to truly understand, Homer is not for you. On the other hand, if you're really intrigued by Greek mythology, history or literature, this book is an ABSOLUTE must. It is one of the great cornerstones of all western literature. I am quite certain that people will still be reading Homer 3,000 years from now.

77 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not as difficult as many think, May 28, 2000

By 

M. H. Bayliss "book queen" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation (Paperback)

Just because it's by some guy named Homer and it's "classic" doesn't mean it's unreadable. Quite to the contrary, the Odyssey is one of the most readable ancient works around because so many of the stories (the Cyclops, Scylla and Charbydis, Circe, Penelope) have become part of the very fabric of our Western culture. Even Eric Clapton sings of Homer in "Tales of Brave Ulysses" in the old song by Cream! There's an allusion for you. Surprisingly, most of my honors 9th grade students adored the Odyssey and found it easy going. The Iliad is harder because it's more of a war book, while the Odyssey is much more of an adventure poem. You won't find the same technical level of poetry in the Odyssey (few of the those great epic similies) as you do in the Iliad, but it is the much more accessible work of the two. Great background reading for both kids and adults is the D'Aulair's Greek Mythology which is written for kids, but helpful for adults as well. I do like Fitzgerald's translation, but I"m still partial to the Lattimore for its proximity to the Greek. Most readers will find Fitzgerald easier, but once you've enjoyed it, give the Lattimore a try -- it's the closest you can come to hearing the poem in Greek.

51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Homer Has It All, October 25, 2000

By 

oh_pete (Cambridge. MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation (Paperback)

Robert Fitzgerald's poetic translation of Homer's ODYSSEY simply picked me up and carried me away when I first read it in the tenth grade. I did not expect something written thousands of years ago to have such colorful language and vivid images. Nor did I expect it to surpass anything I had read before as the greatest story ever told. Very few works have even matched it in my last 15 years of reading.

THE ODYSSEY is the prototypical journey tale of world literature. After ten years fighting and helping the Greeks win the Trojan War, Odysseus, King of Ithaka, offends the sea god Poseidon and is doomed to another ten years of wandering before being able to return to his wife, son, and homeland. He meets all manner of deadly obstacles and pleasant diversions along the way, but always in his mind is the desire for home. Virtually everything is in THE ODYSSEY: a son's coming-of-age without his father, a hero's escape from giant whirlpools, sexy sorceresses and the angry wine-dark sea, the most faithful wife in the history of literature, and that's just for starters.

Fitzgerald imposes no stylistic or rhythmic roadblocks, on the contrary, his poetry is smooth and his gift for bring us all the color and music of Homer is rich and deft. In my book, only Shakespeare and Tolstoy are in the same class as Homer, but the ancient one should be experienced first. Read THE ODYSSEY before or after THE ILIAD, but read it and enjoy.