The Odyssey

By: Homer, Robert Fagles - translator

Narrated by: Ian McKellen

The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles

Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Christopher Nolan

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy." So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey, which Jasper Griffin in the New York Times Book Review hails as "a distinguished achievement."

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of an 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 a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends 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 savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general listener, to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

Critic reviews

“[Robert Fitzgerald’s translation is] a masterpiece . . . An Odyssey worthy of the original.” –The Nation

“[Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” –The Yale Review

“[In] Robert Fitzgerald’s translation . . . there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand, and this line-by-line vigilance builds up into a completely credible imagined world.”
–from the Introduction by Seamus Heaney

impeccable performance, missing introduction

This audiobook lacks any place, introduction or other discussion found in the print book. But the choice of narrator is unassailable, and the translation flows like honeyed wine.

Technical issues, but quite enjoyable

Would you listen to The Odyssey again? Why?

I might listen to it again for research purposes.

What did you like best about this story?

I like Ian McKellen's narration the best. He does a great job throughout.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Any additional comments?

As other reviewers have mentioned, there are several places where it's apparent that some of the narration has been dropped or clipped. Also, the sound quality is inconsistent. Sometimes it's clear and rich, other times it's barely audible. If not for Ian McKellen's narration, I probably would not have finished this book.

This is the original of the best revenge story

The translation is new and fresh. it points straight at 20th century English, yet has a true Hellenistic feel to it. whenever possible the translator has kept meter where it could be. I just couldn't stop listening. It makes me wish it was an earlier time. That epoch when we could burn sweet hecatombs for the gods.
Mr. Fagles,well done. Sir Ian's performance was fantastic.

A great epic.

Classic epic poem. Robert Fagles' translation is free-flowing and easy to follow with modern idioms and understandable language. However the narrator's thick accent makes him a bit difficult to follow.

Difficult at the start but worth it.

Would you listen to The Odyssey again? Why?

Yes because it was a difficult & somewhat boring in the beginning two chapters. Then sped up throughout the next several chapters & finished very strong.

What other book might you compare The Odyssey to and why?

The Illiad also by Homer very similiar books & equally as good.

Which scene was your favorite?

The ingenius way he overcame the suitors.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

It's one of the greats for sure. This was my 2nd time reading it. First was in high school & I think it would benefit anyone who read it in school to reread now that they are older & experienced real modern day life. I took away a completely different understanding 2nd time around & some 30 yrs between readings. It takes an awful time getting started or at least it did for me. The first few chapters I truly suffered thru them but after that I didn't want to stop and the last 3 chapters I couldn't put it down I had to finish it.