Both these texts have been translated both as poetry and prose - they’re epic poems, so trying to preserve a poetic element makes sense, but can also seem awkward in English where our poetic conventions are completely different. For example, some translators try to get the language as similar as possible, while some don’t care about language and try to preserve tone. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.It really depends on the kind of thing you’re looking to get out of these stories - different translators have different goals when translating a work. Richard Jenkyns, The New York Times Book Review Fagles has been remarkably successful in finding a style that is of our time and yet timeless.' 'Robert Fagles is the best living translator of ancient Greek drama, lyric poetry, and epic into modern English, and his translation of The Odyssey is his finest work so far.'

Oliver Taplin, The New York Times Book Review More readable than Lattimore or Fitzgerald, and more performable. leading the reader forward with an irresistible flow. 'Plain and direct, noble, above all rapid. Now available again-a beautiful hardcover gift set of Robert Fagles’s award-winning translations of Homer Both works have been hailed by scholars and the public for the powerful language that brings clashing, pulsing life to these ancient masterpieces. Even the gods come across as real people, despite the divine powers they exercise constantly. The story is told in easy-going, beautiful poetry the characters speak naturally, the action happens briskly. But Poseidon, god of oceans, doesn't want him to make it back across the wine-dark sea to his wife, Penelope, son, Telemachus, and their high-roofed home at Ithaca. The Odyssey is, quite simply, the story of Odysseus, who wants to go home.

The Iliad is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to call it a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the 10th and final year of the Greek siege of Troy. This is a boxed gift edition of Fagles's two widely acclaimed translations of Homer.

The iliad and the odyssey hardcover