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The Odyssey
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
247 of 255 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is Alexander Pope's verse translation of the Odyssey, first published in 1726, glommed into a kindle edition. It is not formatted for the Kindle and is thus very difficult to read -- instead of stanzas, it's all oddly-broken chunks that vaguely resemble paragraphs, presumably an artifact of whatever software was used to scan the original text. To add to that, it's poetry *by Alexander Pope*, and thus largely in heroic couplets, deliberately archaic even to the ear of Pope's 18th-century contemporaries, with "thou"s scattered throughout -- there's a reason that William Wordsworth thought Pope's poetry archaic and artificial.
As this is a "kindle bestseller" but there aren't any other listed reviews, I suspect a lot of people are (like myself) downloading this for their kindles because it shows up readily in a search for "Odyssey", and then getting stymied by the five-hundred-"location" introductory essay (written, as best I can tell, in the early 1800's, and thus hopelessly outdated by little things like two hundred year's worth of Homerian scholarship, Schliemann's discovery of Troy, etc.) and the near-impenetrable arrangement of the text. If anyone can find a better-formatted free-download kindle version of the Odyssey (perhaps a prose translation?) please link me to it in a comment. Thanks.
As this is a "kindle bestseller" but there aren't any other listed reviews, I suspect a lot of people are (like myself) downloading this for their kindles because it shows up readily in a search for "Odyssey", and then getting stymied by the five-hundred-"location" introductory essay (written, as best I can tell, in the early 1800's, and thus hopelessly outdated by little things like two hundred year's worth of Homerian scholarship, Schliemann's discovery of Troy, etc.) and the near-impenetrable arrangement of the text. If anyone can find a better-formatted free-download kindle version of the Odyssey (perhaps a prose translation?) please link me to it in a comment. Thanks.
86 of 87 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This Kindle download is difficult to figure out. It begins with a very lengthy introduction by Theodore Alois Buckley, which might cause you to think you had downloaded a critique of the Odyssey and not the actual story. That is not so.
The actual translation of the Odyssey begins at 8% on the Kindle: "O Muse! resound; Who when his arms had wrougt the destined fall of sacred Troy, and razed her heaven-built wall, wandering from clime to clime, observant stray'd..."
"Now at their native realms the Greeks arrived; all who the wars of ten long years survived; and scaped the perils of the gulfy main."
It is the translation by Alexander Pope and you either like his translation or you don't; there are, I believe, easier ones to understand.
Buckley says,"It would be absurd, therefore, to test Pope's translation by our own advancing knowledge of the original text. We must content to look at it as a most delightful work in itself,-- a work which is as much a part of English literature as Homer himself is of Greek."
The Kindle edition has what I consider a major problem:
There is no Table of Contents so you can not jump to a particular book which is very unfortunate because when studying the book you want to do exactly that. The fix would be to add a Bookmark every time you come to a new book so that you can easily go back and forth. But that, obviously, would mean you have to read through the whole book bookmarking as you go which is why I gave this a four star instead of five star review for this Kindle edition.
But... it is free and free is a very good price.
The actual translation of the Odyssey begins at 8% on the Kindle: "O Muse! resound; Who when his arms had wrougt the destined fall of sacred Troy, and razed her heaven-built wall, wandering from clime to clime, observant stray'd..."
"Now at their native realms the Greeks arrived; all who the wars of ten long years survived; and scaped the perils of the gulfy main."
It is the translation by Alexander Pope and you either like his translation or you don't; there are, I believe, easier ones to understand.
Buckley says,"It would be absurd, therefore, to test Pope's translation by our own advancing knowledge of the original text. We must content to look at it as a most delightful work in itself,-- a work which is as much a part of English literature as Homer himself is of Greek."
The Kindle edition has what I consider a major problem:
There is no Table of Contents so you can not jump to a particular book which is very unfortunate because when studying the book you want to do exactly that. The fix would be to add a Bookmark every time you come to a new book so that you can easily go back and forth. But that, obviously, would mean you have to read through the whole book bookmarking as you go which is why I gave this a four star instead of five star review for this Kindle edition.
But... it is free and free is a very good price.
60 of 65 people found the following review helpful
By A Reader
Format:Paperback
How frustrating that Wildside Press didn't include more with their complete text of Pope's translation. Not only is there no mention of Fenton and Broome, the two men who actually translated 12 of the 24 books--not only are none of Broome's notes included, but there is no annotation whatever, no bibliography of recommended further reading, no criticism, not even a decent history of the translation or of Pope himself, aside from a single reductive paragraph by Theodore Alois Buckley (who edited the text and wrote the rather flowery introduction--in fact there isn't even a date for the introduction--it's Victorian but Wildside doesn't make that clear). Even the back cover is misleading, attributing a Samuel Johnson quote to the Odyssey, when it referred explicitly to the Iliad. Finally, there is no line-numbering, so this edition would be difficult to teach or reference in a paper. Not a scholarly edition.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By gracecswmsw
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I too like some of the reviewers was close to removing this free edition from my Kindle as I began to wonder when The Odyssey would begin. It starts at 8 % or location 413 on the third Kindle type size. The first 8% is a biography of Homer and a critique of Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's The Odyssey. I found the biography interesting and The Odyssey itself is a great Greek epic. A linked table of contents would have been nice and a page break between the foreword and the start of the actual work would have been appreciated. So I take off a star for that. With Kindle's bookmarking, highlighting, note adding feature, and search feature you can quickly find and go anywhere though from your Kindle menu so the point becomes moot. Then I add a half star back for it was free anyways.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's Odyssey ranks as a wonderful lesson in how not to translate. Successive generations have pilloried Pope's wholecloth fabrication translation, in which he forces an unrhymed epic poem into the straitjacket of heroic couplets. No remark hits as aptly as that of Bentley's famous criticism: "A fine Poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer."
Okay--let's not call it Homer. Let's call it "Pope's Epic Greek Poem Loosely Based on Homer," and then let's call it magnificent. In any language, and with any emendations, the Odyssey is an odyssey of sorts in the reading. Long, rambling, filled with a thousand references that only a footnoted text or Grecian scholar could explain, getting through this massive tale takes endurance, pluck, and courage.
Pope's version makes the rough parts easier going, and makes the great parts positively, well, English. When Ulysses returns home and smashes the jaw of the impudent slave, crushing the bone and bathing the floor in blood, it's enough to make you feel like you're watching the Raiders play at home. The goosebump sections are so powerful and speak with such majesty through the genius of Homer and the genius of Pope, that you'll fling down the Kindle in search of a Trojan War and a ten year journey home.
That was the blind poet's intent, right? Right.
Okay--let's not call it Homer. Let's call it "Pope's Epic Greek Poem Loosely Based on Homer," and then let's call it magnificent. In any language, and with any emendations, the Odyssey is an odyssey of sorts in the reading. Long, rambling, filled with a thousand references that only a footnoted text or Grecian scholar could explain, getting through this massive tale takes endurance, pluck, and courage.
Pope's version makes the rough parts easier going, and makes the great parts positively, well, English. When Ulysses returns home and smashes the jaw of the impudent slave, crushing the bone and bathing the floor in blood, it's enough to make you feel like you're watching the Raiders play at home. The goosebump sections are so powerful and speak with such majesty through the genius of Homer and the genius of Pope, that you'll fling down the Kindle in search of a Trojan War and a ten year journey home.
That was the blind poet's intent, right? Right.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Utter tosh.
Utter rubbish; please avoid at all costs; and a complete waste of my valuable time. Typical flowery latin translation which bears little semblace to original. Read more
Published 20 hours ago by maffism
5.0 out of 5 stars
well it was free so how can I not love it
classic Greek Trojan war odysess's (not sure if that's spelt right) trip home and all the drama he has on his way back, good old classic writing that's kinda like pomes short... Read more
Published 1 day ago by patkevinkelly
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable
I read The Iliad and the Odyssey many years ago. It was enjoyable to revisit the past again (no pun intended). Read more
Published 3 days ago by Leah Pulido
2.0 out of 5 stars
it's not the same Odyssey
I downloaded this book on my kindle because we were studying it in English class, and I didn't want to lug my huge textbook around if I could just read it on my kindle. Read more
Published 7 days ago by D. Fallon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it!
I enjoyed the homeric poem so much ... nothing better than this first novel of adventures for all our western culture!
Published 26 days ago by Violeta
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every teenager should read this...
Glad to be able to read this once more and have my imagination kick into high gear... You need to read it if you have not...
Published 1 month ago by myra kavitch
5.0 out of 5 stars
love it
I love reading about the Greek Gods and Myths.. its is so interesting to read about how people think from the past what incredible imaginations.
Published 1 month ago by kathy berry
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not Good
First of all I hate it when authors do not use the Greek names for the Greek Gods. To call Zeus - Jupiter is irritating and does not follow the original work. Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Gatsos
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic
Homer's classic on the Kindle and if you are a Prime member you cannot beat the price, it is free.
Published 1 month ago by Todd Kinsey
5.0 out of 5 stars
A timeless classic
For some it can be lengthy and tedious. Not me...I loved it in junior high, I love it now. I find it odd that my 13 year old daughter, nor my 20 year old son had no clue about this... Read more
Published 1 month ago by jinxiejoi
