Overview

No one knows if there was a man named Homer, but there is little doubt that the epic poems assembled under his name form the cornerstone of Western literature. The Iliad and the Odyssey--with their incomparable tales of the Trojan War, Achilles, Ulysses and Penelope, the Cyclops, the beautiful Helen of Troy, and the petulant gods--are familiar to most people because they are so pervasive. They have fed our imaginations for over two and a half millennia, inspiring everyone from Plato to Virgil, Pope to Joyce, Dante to Wolfgang Petersen. In this graceful and sweeping addition to the Books that Changed the World series, Alberto Manguel traces the lineage of these epic poems. He considers their original purpose, either as allegory or record of history; surveys the challenges the pagan poems presented to the early Christian world; and traces their spread after the Reformation. Following Homer through the greatest literature ever created, Manguel's book above all delights in the poems themselves, the primordial spring without which there would have been no culture.

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"[Manguel's] love for his subject keeps it hypnotic, and Michael Prichard's delivery captures that emotional investment. Prichard evokes Homer's majesty as he reads the verse, and Manguel's admiration for the poet as well.-- ""AudioFile"" ""[Manguel's] love for his subject keeps it hypnotic, and Michael Prichard's delivery captures that emotional investment. Prichard evokes Homer's majesty as he reads the verse, and Manguel's admiration for the poet, as well."" -- ""Audiofile"" A dizzying and hugely enjoyable tour of the Homeric project... from Virgil's remaking of the Iliad and the Odyssey into the Roman national epic, to scholars in medieval Baghdad who could recite Homer word for word from memory, and to the dramatic retelling of the Iliad by Alessandro Baricco... A hugely stimulating read. -- ""Times (London)"" Nothing less than a history of literature itself... An ambitious project - but one for which the author is perfectly qualified. This is recognisably the work of a compulsive translator and anthologiser: for like a literary bloodhound, Manguel has only to pick up the scent of a theme, and he is off pursuing it through a dizzy variety of languages and genres... Brilliant. -- ""Spectator"" Prichard comfortably guides listeners through this exegesis of Homer's classics, fully capturing Manguel's enthusiasm for the topic. Reading in a rich baritone and exhibiting a facility with accents for many languages (from Greek to German), Prichard is an accomplished performer. Fans of Homer and others who enjoy exploring the long tail of the classics will appreciate this intriguing study. -- ""Booklist"""

Author Information

Alberto Manguel is the bestselling author of several award-winning books, including A Dictionary of Imaginary Places and A History of Reading. Michael Prichard is a Los Angeles-based actor who has narrated more than four hundred audiobooks. His numerous awards and accolades include an Audie Award and several AudioFile Earphones Awards. He holds an MFA in theater from the University of Southern California.

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