The Odyssey (Penguin Classics)

Excellent blank verse translation. Close to the original, very readable. Emily Wilson's version is good too.

If you love The Odyssey then you should love this too. Fagles translation is a great read and this production is fabulous thanks to Ian McKellen. Some people say his voice tails off towards the end of each line and while sometimes that is true, it is hardly noticeable and is just part of how he is conveying the story. I had read it first and that makes it easier. But having this on in the car or while you are doing something around the house is absolutely brilliant. Definitely recommended.

I thought long and hard about buying this version of the Odyssey, as opposed to accessing the free versions by other translators that are readily available online. In the end I'm glad I paid out for Fagles' translation as it is a pleasure to read. The Odyssey itself is also a fantastic tale and well worth a read. Highly recommended.

This is a real delight; the text is clear without sounding trivial, and Sir Ian reads with great energy and conviction. My only concern - and I hesitate to say this about one of our greatest actors - is that he tends to let his voice fade away before the end of the last word in a phrase or sentence: so 'He was astonished' becomes 'He was astoni'. Only once or twice has this actually stopped me from understanding the text - you usually get enough of the word to guess - but I find it distracting, as if you can never quite relax into the experience, because you are always listening out for the next vanishing syllable. I would still heartily recommend the CDs, but I would be interested to know if anyone else finds this a problem.

A wonderful translation of an amazing text. Highly recommended. I hope you find my review helpful.

This is an a really good edition. Robert Fagles translation is by far the best and it is very readable. I highly recommend this edition

Fully recommend this book. What you are actually buying here is this particular modern translation, which is superb. Bought this as part of an online classics course and found it very readable even though unused to readibg such works.

A really good translation, very easy and enjoyable to read. A nicely produced paperback too - clear typeface and good font size.

Kitap seçtiğim yayınevine ait değil. İade.

The traducción is amazing. I'm Spanish and I can understand it perfectly and, not only that, I can appreciate the incredible level of traduccion.

Ótima tradução, com ótimas notas iniciais explicativas.

beautiful translation nobody could do better

I first read the Odyssey almost 50 years ago as a freshman in college. Back then, I struggled so much reading and understanding the text I don't think I grasped any of the larger issues the instructor was trying to teach. This edition, masterfully translated by Robert Fagles, was truly a pleasure to read. I found myself reading many passages (and even long sections) out loud and really felt I was hearing something like a performance with oral cadences and lively movement. And this time I was totally caught up in the dramatic unfolding of events. Don't be mislead by TV, movie and graphic novel versions of this classic story. Odysseus is not an ancient version of Mad Max careening from one bloody encounter to another. In fact the reader does not even meet Odysseus until Book Five, almost one-fourth of the way through the book. All of the famous exploits are told as a series of long "flashbacks." Odysseus actually reaches his home island of Ithaca in the middle of Book Thirteen. So almost one-half of the book is not Odysseus' seafaring adventures but his coping with his complex homecoming situation and subsequent plotting and maneuvering. So put the cartoon versions out of your mind and settle in for a story of high drama and suspense full of well-crafted characters including perceptive portraits of the women Odysseus encounters. Kindle readers will really appreciate that this Kindle edition is a complete duplicate of the print edition. It contains the extensive introduction by Bernard Knox. And, in a Kindle bonus, the authoritative line notes are "hyper-linked" in the text; just click on the underlined line number to jump to that line's note. And, yes, it does have relatively unobtrusive line numbering so you can use this version in a class where everyone else has the print edition. (I just did!) You get all the maps, genealogies, textual variants, and spelling and pronunciation guides of the print edition. And, I encountered no typos, transcribing errors or blunders in the text. This Kindle edition is a respectable version of the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of one of the greatest stories ever told and well worth the moderate price.