Odysseus: A Life - Hardcover

Beye, Charles Rowan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1401300243 ISBN 13: 9781401300241

Publisher: Hachette Books, 2004

Synopsis

From an acclaimed classicist comes a witty, unusual, and fascinating 'biography' of Homer's fictional Bronze Age hero, Odysseus

Everyone knows something about Odysseus: how he defeated the Trojans in a surprise attack with a massive wooden horse, wandered the Mediterranean seas for years trying to get home, confronted the Cyclops, and killed the suitors of his faithful wife Penelope back at his Ithaca palace. Odysseus turns up everywhere: Homer's epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, Tennyson's poem 'Ulysses' (the Roman name for Odysseus), Constantine Cavafy's Ithaca, and more. Even the Coen brothers based a film, O Brother Where Art Thou, on his voyage. But no one has chronicled Odysseus' life from start to finish--until now.

In this entertaining 'biography,' Charles Beye fills out the story of this extraordinary figure, at the same time portraying Odysseus' evolution through the course of a strange and adventuresome life, at times so remote, at times so immediate in the contemporary perspective.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Rowan Beye is Distinguished Professor of Classics Emeritus at the City University of New York and has taught at Boston University, Stanford University, and Yale University. The author of numerous books and articles about the classics (particularly Homer and epic poetry), he divides his time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City.

From AudioFile:

Here's an interesting book that both is, and isn't, a biography in the historical sense because the main character's very existence is somewhat of a mystery. Most people have come in contact with Odysseus through Homeric works. This book expands on what we know with what is possible. Mark Bramhall has the daunting task of straddling the elusive line between fact and fiction. He can be neither too dramatic nor professorial, and, as a result, he comes out boring. Bramhall's nasal voice doesn't rise enough for the exciting fiction, and it falls and slows for the historical parts. He paces his reading well but undermines himself once he gets going by cutting off the ends of many words. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1401300243
• ISBN 13: 9781401300241
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224