Homer in English (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Samples of translations plus related writings.
Review: Ever since I read Keats' poem "On First Lookinginto Chapman's Homer," I've been looking for acopy or at least a sample of his words. Chapman was a contemporary of Shakespeare and his words are wonderful. But this book is more than a compilation of snippets from various translators. It includes related writings from Keats (the above poem, of course), Shelley, Chaucer, James Joyce's description of the young Homer and other authors. For Homerphiles, it is a nice book to have and a source that points to other authors who have also been smitten with the ancient bard.

Rating:
Summary: Great collection of translations
Review: The Penguin Poets in Translation series has got to be one of the best publishing ventures of the past 25 years. What these volumes do is collect English translations and imitations over the past several centuries of major poets, in the case of "Homer in English" from Geoffrey Chaucer to William Logan. "Homer in English," edited by George Steiner, prints generous excerpts from the major translations of the Homeric literature: George Chapman, Alexander Pope, Robert Fitzgerald, etc. and scores from minor ones. And besides straight translations, Steiner has also included original poems inspired by Homer - among them John Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," Lord Tennyson's "The Lotos Eaters" and "Ulysses," Ezra Pound's "Canto I," W. H. Auden's "The Shield of Achilles," and many others. This volume is an excellent way to trace Homer's influence on the English-speaking world from the medieval period to our own time.

I wholeheartedly recommend anyone who enjoys this book to check out the other "in English" books in this series. Besides Homer, collections of Charles Baudelaire, Horace, Martial, Ovid, The Psalms, Seneca, and Virgil are already in print. Volumes of the Bible, Catullus, Dante, Juvenal, Lucretius, Eugenio Montale, Petrarch, and Rainer Rilke "in English" are in preparation.

Rating:
Summary: Great collection of translations
Review: The Penguin Poets in Translation series has got to be one of the best publishing ventures of the past 25 years. What these volumes do is collect English translations and imitations over the past several centuries of major poets, in the case of "Homer in English" from Geoffrey Chaucer to William Logan. "Homer in English," edited by George Steiner, prints generous excerpts from the major translations of the Homeric literature: George Chapman, Alexander Pope, Robert Fitzgerald, etc. and scores from minor ones. And besides straight translations, Steiner has also included original poems inspired by Homer - among them John Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," Lord Tennyson's "The Lotos Eaters" and "Ulysses," Ezra Pound's "Canto I," W. H. Auden's "The Shield of Achilles," and many others. This volume is an excellent way to trace Homer's influence on the English-speaking world from the medieval period to our own time.

I wholeheartedly recommend anyone who enjoys this book to check out the other "in English" books in this series. Besides Homer, collections of Charles Baudelaire, Horace, Martial, Ovid, The Psalms, Seneca, and Virgil are already in print. Volumes of the Bible, Catullus, Dante, Juvenal, Lucretius, Eugenio Montale, Petrarch, and Rainer Rilke "in English" are in preparation.

Rating:
Summary: Great poet, great series
Review: This book is the centerpiece of Penguin's wonderful and now tragically out of print Poets in Translation series, featuring selections from many translations with brief introductions. Editing a volume for Homer is to tackle a great volume of translations, many of them famous in their own right. The cut-off year is 1994, so the book doesn't include one of my favorite translations, Stanley Lombardo's, although it does have Fitzgerald and Lattimore excerpts; their texts are the other ones popular in schools these days.

While the Middle and Early Modern English selections could have used glosses, and some of the introductions are less than informative, the editors have done a fantastic job at digging up rare translations and finding examples of Homeria, Homer-inspired literature from Joyce to Keats to Walcott's OMEROS. One gets a sense not only of how Anglophone views of Homer have changed, but also how writing has changed. It demonstrates why certain translations (i.e. Chapman's, Pope's, Pound's First Canto) are justly famed.

If you like the idea of the Poets in Translation series, but not Homer, I suggest trying BAUDELAIRE IN ENGLISH or OVID IN ENGLISH, two of my favorites, and neither so overwhelmed by excess translators as this book can be. On the other hand, there will certainly be more than one Homer in this book to please even the most picky reader, and the joy of discovering another fine translation or inspiration makes this book worth 5/5 stars. Homer lives!

Rating:
Summary: Great poet, great series
Review: This book is the centerpiece of Penguin's wonderful and now tragically out of print Poets in Translation series, featuring selections from many translations with brief introductions. Editing a volume for Homer is to tackle a great volume of translations, many of them famous in their own right. The cut-off year is 1994, so the book doesn't include one of my favorite translations, Stanley Lombardo's, although it does have Fitzgerald and Lattimore excerpts; their texts are the other ones popular in schools these days.

While the Middle and Early Modern English selections could have used glosses, and some of the introductions are less than informative, the editors have done a fantastic job at digging up rare translations and finding examples of Homeria, Homer-inspired literature from Joyce to Keats to Walcott's OMEROS. One gets a sense not only of how Anglophone views of Homer have changed, but also how writing has changed. It demonstrates why certain translations (i.e. Chapman's, Pope's, Pound's First Canto) are justly famed.

If you like the idea of the Poets in Translation series, but not Homer, I suggest trying BAUDELAIRE IN ENGLISH or OVID IN ENGLISH, two of my favorites, and neither so overwhelmed by excess translators as this book can be. On the other hand, there will certainly be more than one Homer in this book to please even the most picky reader, and the joy of discovering another fine translation or inspiration makes this book worth 5/5 stars. Homer lives!