Rating: 
Summary: A Greek bearing gifts
Review: "The Odyssey" takes up the story of "The Iliad", but not quite from where "The Iliad" ended. Years have passed since the end of the Trojan War, and Odysseus is still absent without leave from Ithaca. A plague of Suitors beset his kingdom (and his wife Penelope). Odysseus' son, Telemachus, decides he's fed up of waiting for his father's return, and sets out to discover what happened to him.In the meantime, Odysseus is making his way back to Ithaca, albeit by a long and dangerous route. Will he make it? Will Telemachus find him? Will they get back to Ithaca in time to save the kingdom and Penelope's honour? The reader also learns more about the course of the Trojan War after "The Iliad" ended. The past is unrolled in snippets, and not in a simple chronological order - the reader, along with the characters, has to piece together what went on as other characters in the book tell of their personal experiences. I thought that this was great stuff - entertaining as an adventure story, at times comic, yet reflective upon universal and timeless problems facing each of us as we struggle with life's vagaries. And of course, there's a great cast list of Greek mythology's baddies - Polyphemus, Scylla and Charybdis, Poseidon and so on. G Rodgers
Rating:
Summary: An epic odyssey
Review: After so many people have said so much over countless centuries about Homer's "Odyssey," what is left for me to say? In this review I will not so much attempt to review the work itself as the translation. Suffice to say that it is a grand adventure that should not be missed. but average modern readers may miss it, being weary of reading it as poetry or are simply intimidated by its age. If you are one of those people, fear not! W.H.D. Rouse's prose translation brings The Odyssey to the masses with flair. Reading it for school this year, I was a bit apprehensive of it at first, but eager to see what was so great about it. I needn't have been apprehensive at all. The prose reads just as well as modern novels, and the feeling and adventure of the book is well captured. For those who don't know, this is the story of what became of Odysseus after he fought in the Trojan War (which is chronicled in The Iliad.) Several obstacles, including the wrath of Posiden, Greek god of the sea, bar him from returning home, where savage men, under the impression that he has died at war, consume his posessions and woo his wife. Watch as he braves these obstacles with the help of the goddess Athena so that he may return home and punish the insolent wooers. While it's slow to start off, give it time -- at its best, The Odyssey is riviting, and it's obvious why it has been able to stand the test of time and is regarded as a classic. The action is exciting and will leave you breathless, but also there is humanity and real emotion here. All of that is perfectly captured in Rouse's translation, and he brings it accross to the reader with a remarkable strength and deftness. Reading it, it's as if you re being told the story orally (which, as Rouse notes in his preface, is how it was originally intended by Homer), and all of the energy of a live storytelling is present. I commend Rouse for his work, and thank him for bringing me The Odyssey. When you read it, you will, too!
Rating:
Summary: An epic odyssey
Review: After so many people have said so much over countless centuries about Homer's "Odyssey," what is left for me to say? In this review I will not so much attempt to review the work itself as the translation. Suffice to say that it is a grand adventure that should not be missed. but average modern readers may miss it, being weary of reading it as poetry or are simply intimidated by its age. If you are one of those people, fear not! W.H.D. Rouse's prose translation brings The Odyssey to the masses with flair. Reading it for school this year, I was a bit apprehensive of it at first, but eager to see what was so great about it. I needn't have been apprehensive at all. The prose reads just as well as modern novels, and the feeling and adventure of the book is well captured. For those who don't know, this is the story of what became of Odysseus after he fought in the Trojan War (which is chronicled in The Iliad.) Several obstacles, including the wrath of Posiden, Greek god of the sea, bar him from returning home, where savage men, under the impression that he has died at war, consume his posessions and woo his wife. Watch as he braves these obstacles with the help of the goddess Athena so that he may return home and punish the insolent wooers. While it's slow to start off, give it time -- at its best, The Odyssey is riviting, and it's obvious why it has been able to stand the test of time and is regarded as a classic. The action is exciting and will leave you breathless, but also there is humanity and real emotion here. All of that is perfectly captured in Rouse's translation, and he brings it accross to the reader with a remarkable strength and deftness. Reading it, it's as if you re being told the story orally (which, as Rouse notes in his preface, is how it was originally intended by Homer), and all of the energy of a live storytelling is present. I commend Rouse for his work, and thank him for bringing me The Odyssey. When you read it, you will, too!
Rating: 
Summary: This is not Jason and the Golden Fleece
Review: Despite the similarities, this is not the tale of Jason and his quest for the golden fleece. This earlier work has many similarities, but if you are not a student of ancient Greece, avoid this book. For entertainment value, read about Jason instead.
Rating:
Summary: Home, by way of every where else
Review: For ten years after the sack of Troy, Odysseus wanders around the Medditerainian Sea trying to get home. I liked this Homer tale a little better than I did "Iliad". That is because this one has more monsters, more mythic happenings than the war story. Not that it's a bad book, but I liked this one because it is more a complete story, with a begining, a definiate end. I find it hard to critisize a classic, so I won't; I'll just say that this is one of the best stories, certainly one of my favorites, and it has stood the test of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't live up to its reputation
Review: I read this epic in English my freshman year of high school. I had heard many great things about this classic, but was sorely disappointed. It is repetitive, there is little to no character development, and each book (kind of like a chapter) is practically the same story line. Perhaps this edition is a bad translation. I might try the Fitzgerald one.
A note: I think it's time we get some modern books into school curriculum. Just because they are considered classics doesn't mean they are any good by today's standards.
Rating: 
Summary: An amazing novel
Review: The Odyssey is an amazing novel. The story is awesome and the translation by Albert Cook is great. This novel is great because it gives us a look at what ancient Greece was like. They valued marriage, they expected women to stay at home, that men would die in battle, on the sea, or raiding other people, and also that something that was unexplainable was due to the gods.
This novel is a great adventure. The Odyssey begins by showing Odysseus to us through the words of Meneloas and Nester. Then we are brought to Odysseus and learn his plight. We see him released after seven years of living with a goddess. When he is rescued again, we learn of his voyages since leaving Troy and the reason that one particular god is so angry with him. Once his story is told, his rescuers bring him to his fatherland. He then takes vengence on those who had ravaged his home while he was away, and he is reunited with his faithful wife Penelope.
As well as being a great insight to Greek life, this novel is a great story that I look forward to reading again. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing tale
Review: The Odyssey is an amazing tale of the travels of Odysseus and his crew after the Trojan War. His encounters with the Cyclops, sea monsters, Sirens, Gods, and ghosts create a tale larger than life. Mr. Rouse does an amazing job of translating the tale in a way that flows well and reads easily. My only complaint of this classic is the ending... in 1 1/2 pages things go from nearly a civil war to peace. It appears almost as if homer had not finished the tale before his death, and someone else added the ending just to finish the book. Aside from the ending, the entire book is a masterpiece of ancient literature.
Rating:
Summary: 4 words : Classic for a reason
Review: There's a reason that The Odyssey and The Illiad are considered classics in the most complete sense, and in reading the two I was blown away time and time again in seeing why. Credit must also be given to Rouse for a brilliant translation that gives the words of Homer a fluidity most translators lack. As a novel, The Odyssey reads well as a great tale picking up where The Illiad left off; full of rich detail, beautiful imagery and an incredibly elaborate mythology that one needn't be familiar with to understand. I was worried beforehand about knowing so little about Greek Mythology but Homer incorporates exactly enough information of the Gods to provide insight to the characters and traditions of their culture necessary to understand the story, while teaching you about them along the way. There is an abundance of reference and connection with religion, culture and traditions (actually, as you read you'll find a lot of modern words or expressions that originated from the text) to be studied at length, but the story is also excellent as a stand-alone tale if you don't want to analyze it. The plot is that of Odysseus, after the Battle of Troy (described in The Illiad), who is stranded on an island as his house and family are plagued by ignorant men who are slowly consuming his wealth and resources while awaiting his thought-to-be-widowed wife's decision on which of them she will marry. As his much-abused young son comes of age, he is set upon a journey by the Gods to find his father and restore his household to proper order. The tale is weaved around this and lined with themes of love, loyalty, honour and revenge in such a way that no author I've read has even come close to. Homer is perhaps comparable to Shakespeare only in the sheer breadth of his scope, but surpasses him in his intuition for storytelling. If you genuinely like to read but haven't read this yet, buy it now (after The Illiad, of course) or get it from the library. Considered to be the first Novel, you're reading a piece of history, a dead society, and an amazing tale as well.
Rating:
Summary: The wanderings and adventures of Odysseus.
Review: This epic were required reading in the humanities course I took at U.C.L.A. in the mid-1960s. And, I've reread it a number of times since then. The prose translation I read was by Rieu (if you are interested in the verse translation, see the volume provided by Robert Fagles). "The Odyssey" is the epic poem of the wanderings of Odysseus trying to return to his home in Ithaca following the end of the siege of Troy. There are three basic threads in this epic: Telemachus' search for his father, Odysseus (Books II-IV); the wanderings of Odysseus (Books I and V-XIII); and, Penelope's struggles with her suitors (Books XIV-XXIV). All of these come together in the conclusion. "The Odyssey" begins in the middle of the tale (in medias res) when Odysseus request to leave Calypso on the island of Ogygia. Much of his wanderings are told as recaptulations of earlier events. Telemachus sets out from Ithaca to find his father; but he searches in vain at Pylos and Sparta. Odysseus has many adventures in his travels: battle with the warlike Cicones; an encounter with the Lotus-Eaters; the famous fight with the cyclops Polyphemus; a near shipwreak following the release of winds from a bag; a visit with the enchantress Circe who turns Odysseus' men into swine; talks with the spirits of the dead; escape from the Sirens; eluding Scylla and Charybdis, two sea-monsters lying between Italy and Sicily; the killing of the sacred oxen of the Sun; seven years with Calypso; another shipwreak; rescue by King Alcinous; and the final arrival on Ithaca. This is one of the great classics of literature and evry college student should be required to read it. I've always felt that until recently when I discovered that, at a local Middle School, it was required reading for eighth graders! Now, I think that all High School graduates should have read it.
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