Book has Bevelled Edges
A glorious boxed set featuring Robert Fagles's award-winning translations of the three great epics of Western literature
ONE OF THE PREEMINENT translators of our time, Robert Fagles's interpretations of these epic poems give new life to three seminal works in the Western canon.
The Penguin Classic Deluxe Editions of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid are collected here for the first time in a specially designed gift box. Each volume contains a superb introduction by renowned classicist Bernard Knox.
The Iliad
"Rage – Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls..."
Thus begins the stirring story of the Trojan War and the rage of Achilles that has gripped listeners and readers for 2,700 years. This timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to its wrenching, tragic conclusion.
Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb Introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilised life and a poignant yearning for peace. Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. He maintains the drive and metric music of Homer's poetry, and evokes the impact and nuance of the Iliad's mesmerising repeated phrases in what Peter Levi calls "an astonishing performance."
The Odyssey
If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey through life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once the timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance. In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savour, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.
Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' introduction. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.
The Aeneid
From the award-winning translator of The Iliad and The Odyssey comes a brilliant new translation of Virgil's great epic
With his translations of Homer's classic poems, Robert Fagles gave new life to seminal works of the Western canon and became one of the pre-eminent translators of our time. His latest achievement completes the magnificent triptych of Western epics. A sweeping story of arms and heroism, The Aeneid follows the adventures of Aeneas, who flees the ashes of Troy to embark upon a tortuous course that brings him to Italy and fulfils his destiny as founder of the Roman people. Retaining all of the gravitas and humanity of the original, this powerful blend of poetry and myth remains as relevant today as when it was first written.
Industry Reviews
" Robert Fagles is the best living translator of ancient Greek drama, lyric poetry, and epic into modern English."
-Garry Wills, "The New Yorker"
" Mr. Fagles has been remarkably successful in finding a style that is of our time and yet timeless."
-Richard Jenkyns, "The New York Times Book Review"
" Robert Fagles gives the full range of Virgil's drama, grandeur, and pathos in vigorous, supple modern English. It is fitting that one of the great translators of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" in our times should also emerge as a surpassing translator of "The Aeneid"."
-J. M. Coetzee
