Overview

This unique study examines the interface between contemporary philosophy and literature through Alexander Pope's majestic translation of the Odyssey of Homer. Employing the lens supplied by the philosopher Graham Harman in his development of Object-Oriented Ontology, it explores the beautiful (and sometimes dazzling) figurative language of both Pope's English and Homer's Greek; in so doing, it uncovers something of the vast withdrawn and subterranean reality to which the poems can only allude, setting this against a contrasting sensual world—a world encrusted with shimmering images and objects that range from the quotidian to the metaphysically bizarre.

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9781527545236

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Reviews

In a fascinating account of the ways in which Homer captured Pope's imagination, Gayle uncovers an exhilarating conversation between Homer's Odyssey and Alexander Pope's translation of the foremost Greek epic of exile at the level of the things that are woven into both poems. The result is a completely original view of both poets and their relationship in a universe of things. In a book that blends psycho-biography with innovative textual criticism, Gayle allows us to encounter afresh the particulars of Homeric and Popeian worlds, and their sensuous presentation within and across different poetic languages. This inimitably stylish, beguiling and compelling new work brings alive the craft of two uniquely influential European classics in all their beauty and strangeness. Jane StablerHead of School of English, University of St Andrews With his close comparison of Pope's translation with the Homeric Greek, Gayle has produced an absorbing and accessible account of how one great poet engages with another. Further insights are provided by the contrastive juxtaposition of Augustan England with Homeric Greece, and by the pioneering application of the new metaphysics of Object-Oriented Ontology to literature. This is a tour de force. Richard SeafordEmeritus Professor of Greek, University of Exeter

Author Information

Nicholas Gayle is the author of Byron and the Best of Poets (2016)—described by Pat Rogers as likely to be ""the standard treatment for a long time to come""—and Byron and the Sea-Green Isle (2018), a book praised by Bernard Beatty as ""a remarkable achievement."" He is also a contributor to The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron.

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