Simon ArmitageThe OdysseyA Dramatic Retelling of Homer’s Epic“Armitage has given an ageless story new vigor, and has done it with style, wit and elegance.”—Literary ReviewIn this new verse adaptation, originally commissioned for BBC radio, Simon Armitage has recast Homer’s epic as a series of bristling dramatic dialogues: between gods and men; between no-nonsense Captain Odysseus and his unruly, lotus-eating, homesick companions; and between subtle Odysseus (wiliest hero of antiquity) and a range of shape-shifting adversaries—Calypso, Circe, the Sirens, the Cyclops—as he and his men are “pinballed between islands” of adversity. One of the most individual voices of his generation, Armitage revitalizes our sense of the Odyssey as oral poetry, as indeed one of the greatest of tall tales. “A version with a modern idiom and sensibility that is loyal enough to its original to be recommendable to anyone daunted by the idea of reading the real thing.”—Sunday Times “A pleasure to read aloud, its pages fizzing with the earthy vernacular of Odysseus, his fellow seamen, monstrous adversaries and even the gods themselves.”—New Statesman Simon Armitage is the author of nine collections of poetry for which he has won numerous awards. He is also a novelist and playwright. He lives in Yorkshire, England, and is a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. |
Also Available: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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April 2008 / paperback original / ISBN 978-0-393-33081-6 |
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