Title rated 3.25 out of 5 stars, based on 6 ratings(6 ratings)
Book, 2008
Current format, Book, 2008, , All copies in use.
Book, 2008
Current format, Book, 2008, , All copies in use. Offered in 0 more formats
Recounts Odysseus' long journey home from the Trojan War, and the unusual encounters he had with the Sirens, the cyclops Polyphemus, and Circe the enchantress. A verse adaptation of the classic tale, originally commissioned for BBC radio, presents the story as a series of dramatic exchanges between Odysseus, his lotus-eating companions, and a range of shape-shifting adversaries. Original. In this new verse adaptation, originally commissioned for BBC radio, Simon Armitage has recast Homer's epic as a series of bristling dramatic dialogues: between gods and men; between no-nonsense Captain Odysseus and his unruly, lotus-eating, homesick companions; and between subtle Odysseus (wiliest hero of antiquity) and a range of shape-shifting adversaries—Calypso, Circe, the Sirens, the Cyclops—as he and his men are "pinballed between islands" of adversity. One of the most individual voices of his generation, Armitage revitalizes our sense of the Odyssey as oral poetry, as indeed one of the greatest of tall tales. "Armitage has given an ageless story new vigor, and has done it with style, wit and elegance."—Literary Review
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