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Available
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Publication
Amsterdam Mets en Schilt cop. 2008
User reviews
LibraryThing member lyzadanger
After the strange, gasping fascination with which I read the Iliad recently, I felt like I had to know more. Like I didn't want to forget the shape of it and the Odyssey, like I needed to understand the way the archetypes from misty, almost pre-historic Greece influence our metaphorical view of
And, viola! Manguel's treatment and investigation in this "biography" (as it were--of the poems, not the poet) is a work of adoration, sensuous and nested with complexity. It's really a book that's a bit beyond me. The more I try to be well-read, the more I realize I am not, and here again I am reminded. Manguel bounces Homer off of Pope, Milton, Dante, Joyce, Tennyson.
What I see this book as is as a gate--a viewport to the things I can learn about and read next; a guide to the interconnectedness of epics throughout time.
Sometimes Manguel's chapters wax into pure philosophy, at which I glaze over sometimes--my own weakness. But what a wonderful context-builder!
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ourselves through the ages.And, viola! Manguel's treatment and investigation in this "biography" (as it were--of the poems, not the poet) is a work of adoration, sensuous and nested with complexity. It's really a book that's a bit beyond me. The more I try to be well-read, the more I realize I am not, and here again I am reminded. Manguel bounces Homer off of Pope, Milton, Dante, Joyce, Tennyson.
What I see this book as is as a gate--a viewport to the things I can learn about and read next; a guide to the interconnectedness of epics throughout time.
Sometimes Manguel's chapters wax into pure philosophy, at which I glaze over sometimes--my own weakness. But what a wonderful context-builder!
Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
A nice, compact cultural history of different ways of reading the founding epics of Greek culture, from the ancient Greeks themselves right through to Margaret Atwood and Derek Walcott. As erudite and wide-ranging as you would expect from Manguel, but lively and accessible at the same time. Some
Inevitably, in such a short book, there isn't space to explore everything — Henry Fielding only gets a brief mention, for instance, and Christa Wolf is missed out altogether. But, true to his origins, Manguel does give us a short discussion of the Argentinian epic Martin Fierro, whilst the closing chapter is mostly taken up by a discussion of a story by his own mentor, Borges.
This probably isn't a book that will make you read Homer if you never saw the need to before, but it is helpful in giving a bit of perspective on the sort of role the Iliad and Odyssey have played in Western culture over the past three millennia. And it's a great pleasure to read for its own sake.
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predictable stuff — Keats and Chapman's Homer — but also plenty of less obvious insights, like the odd ways stories taken from Homer came into the north European folktale repertoire via Arabic literature. Or the Counter-Reformation prejudice against Greek culture that left Homer largely unread in Catholic Europe in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, to the extent that Miguel de Unamuno could be appointed professor of Greek in Salamanca in 1891 despite having no knowledge of that language. (Manguel points out that Racine made Greek socially acceptable again in France.)Inevitably, in such a short book, there isn't space to explore everything — Henry Fielding only gets a brief mention, for instance, and Christa Wolf is missed out altogether. But, true to his origins, Manguel does give us a short discussion of the Argentinian epic Martin Fierro, whilst the closing chapter is mostly taken up by a discussion of a story by his own mentor, Borges.
This probably isn't a book that will make you read Homer if you never saw the need to before, but it is helpful in giving a bit of perspective on the sort of role the Iliad and Odyssey have played in Western culture over the past three millennia. And it's a great pleasure to read for its own sake.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dirkjohnson
I enjoy the content of the book very much and find it great fun. The narrator, though, comes close to destroying the book from my point of view. He reads as though he were reading the nightly news on television. Book, 5 stars, Narrator, 2 stars. (this review is about the audiobook)
LibraryThing member CarltonC
A well thought through series of essays on aspects of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and how they have been viewed through time. Picking up references to other books and stories that I have written was fun,although I nowhere near as well read as the author.
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2007
Physical description
249 p.; 22 cm
ISBN
9789053306598