The Iliad

The Iliad

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About the Book

THE WORLD’S GREATEST WAR NOVEL

Humans and gods wrestling with towering emotions. Men fighting to the death amid devastation and destruction. Perhaps the Western world’s first and best storyteller, Homer draws the reader in with bated breath. His masterful tale contains some of the most famous episodes in all of literature: the curse on the prophet Cassandra; the siege of Troy; the battle between Hector and Achilles; the face that launched a thousand ships; and of course, the deception of the Trojan Horse. To this day, the heroism and adventure of The Iliad have remained unmatched in song and story.

In his “plain English” translation, W.H.D. Rouse makes a point to keep the language as colloquial as Homer’s original was, never pedantic, high-flown, or clichéd. In fact, it is the nearest contemporary English equivalent to the epic Homer’s audience heard at their banquets.
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Praise for The Iliad

“A great poem cannot be fully translated unless by a poet almost as great as its original author…W.H.D. Rouse…retells the story in fast, modern, colloquial prose. It is the first version I have ever seen which drives on as rapidly as the original and therefore it makes an excellent introduction to Homer. This is the translation to read first, if you have never read The Iliad.”—The New York Times Book Review
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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

Seth L. Schein
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 Seth L. Schein
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About the Author

Adam Nicolson
ADAM NICOLSON is the author of many books on history, travel, and the environment. He is the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, the British Topography Prize, and the W.H. Heinemann Award. His previous books include Sea Room, God's Secretaries, Seamanship, Men of Honour, and Earls of Paradise. More by Adam Nicolson
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About the Author

W. H. D. Rouse
W.H.D. Rouse was one of the great 20th century experts on Ancient Greece, and headmaster of the Perse School, Cambridge, England, for 26 years. Under his leadership the school became widely known for the successful teaching of Greek and Latin as spoken languages. He derived his knowledge of the Greeks not only from his wide studies of classical literature, but also by travelling extensively in Greece. He died in 1950. More by W. H. D. Rouse
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