The Iliad

The Iliad

About the Book

Dating to the ninth century BC, Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to  the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb Introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.
 
Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. He maintains the drive and metric music of Homer’s poetry, and evokes the impact and nuance of the Iliad’s mesmerizing repeated phrases in what Peter Levi calls “an astonishing performance.”
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Praise for The Iliad

“Fitzgerald has solved virtually every problem that has plagued translators of Homer. The narrative runs, the dialogue speaks, the military action is clear, and the repetitive epithets become useful text rather than exotic relics.” –Atlantic Monthly

“Fitzgerald’ s swift rhythms, bright images, and superb English make Homer live as never before…This is for every reader in our time and possibly for all time.”–Library Journal

“[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

“What an age can read in Homer, what its translators can manage to say in his presence, is one gauge of its morale, one index to its system of exultations and reticences. The supple, the iridescent, the ironic, these modes are among our strengths, and among Mr. Fitzgerald’s.” –National Review

With an Introduction by Gregory Nagy
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Penguin Audio Classics Series

The Tale of Tales
Sense and Sensibility
The Aeneid
The Odyssey
The Winter of Our Discontent
On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition
The Iliad

About the Author

Homer
Homer was a Greek poet, recognized as the author of the great epics, the Iliad, the story of the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey, the tale of Ulysses’s wanderings. More by Homer
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About the Author

Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek Jacobi is an English actor and stage director. He is a founding member of the Royal National Theatre, and a two-time Lawrence Olivier Award winner. He has also appeared on television and in film, including Henry V, Gladiator, and The King’s Speech. He lives in North London. More by Derek Jacobi
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About the Author

Maria Tucci
Maria Tucci was born in 1941 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. Tucci is a Tony Award–winning actress, also known for her performances in the films To Die For, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, and Touch and Go. Tucci has contributed to many audiobooks, including Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker and Violin by Anne Rice. She is married to book editor Robert Gottlieb, and they have two children. More by Maria Tucci
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About the Author

Bernard Knox
Bernard Knox was the first director and later director emeritus of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC. An English classicist and author, he became an American citizen and worked in academia. In 1992 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Knox for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. He died in 2010. More by Bernard Knox
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About the Author

Robert Fagles
Robert Fagles was Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He was the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His many translations include Sophocles’s Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus’s Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), Homer’s Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets), and Homer’s Odyssey. Robert Fagles passed away in 2008. More by Robert Fagles
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