This is the best-loved modern translation of the
Odyssey, and the only one admired as a great poem in English. Fitzgerald’s supple verse is ideally suited to the story of Odysseus’ long journey home after the Trojan War. Homer’s tale of love, adventure, sensual pleasure, and danger reaches the English-language reader in all its glory.
This beloved, classic translation of The Odyssey by the renowned translator and poet Robert Fitzgerald has sold more than a million copies, and now appears in a gorgeous deluxe edition with a new foreword from Laura Slatkin and an afterword by A. E. Stallings.
Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of Homer’s Odyssey is the best and best-loved modern translation of the greatest of all epic poems. Since 1961, this Odyssey has sold more than two million copies, and has long been the standard translation for generations of students and poets. Picador is delighted to publish a new edition of this classic work with a new cover, an attractive, collectible package, and a new scholarly introduction and afterword that will connect Fitzgerald’s Homer to ever more students and general readers. Fitzgerald’s supple verse is ideally suited to the story of Odysseus’s long journey back to his wife and home after the Trojan War. Homer’s tale of love, adventure, food and drink, sensual pleasure, and mortal danger reaches the English-language reader in all its glory.
Of the many translations published since World War II, only Fitzgerald’s has won admiration as a great poem in English. The noted classicist Laura Slatkin explains the depth of his engagement with the complex and timeless themes of Homer, while the award-winning poet A. E. Stallings expounds on the gift of his lyrical, ageless poetry that has brought Homer and Odysseus to life for millions of readers of every age.
Winner of the Bollingen Prize
This edition also features a map, a Glossary of Names and Places, and Fitzgerald’s Postscript. Line drawings precede each book of the poem.
