Tales from Ovid: Twenty-four Passages from the "Metamorphoses"

Ted Hughes

ISBN 10: 0571191037 / ISBN 13: 9780571191031

Published by Faber & Faber 18/02/2002, 2002

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Tales from Ovid: Twenty-four Passages from ...

Publisher: Faber & Faber 18/02/2002

Publication Date: 2002

Binding: Paperback

Book Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis:

Hughes's three contributions to the anthology "After Ovid" an accurate account of the original so thoroughly imbued with his own qualities that it was as if Latin and English poet were somehow the same person. This volume continues the project, with 24 passages including the stories of Phaeton, Actaon, Echo and Narcissus, Procne and Midas.

Review:

England's poet laureate Ted Hughes first turned his hand to Ovid's Metamorphoses when he--along with other prominent English-language poets such as Seamus Heaney, Amy Clampitt, and Charles Simic--contributed poems to the anthology After Ovid. In the three years following After Ovid's publication, Hughes continued working with the Metamorphoses, eventually completing the 24 translations collected here. Culling from 250 original tales, Hughes has chosen some of the most violent and disturbing narratives Ovid wrote, including the stories of Echo and Narcissus, Bacchus and Pentheus, and Semele's rape by Jove. Classical purists may be offended at the occasional liberties Hughes takes with Ovid's words, but no one will quarrel with the force and originality of Hughes's verse, or with its narrative skill. This translation is an unusual triumph--a work informed by the passion and wit of Ovid, yet suffused with Hughes's own distinctive poetic sensibility.