Chapman's Homer: The Odyssey - Softcover

Homer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691048916 ISBN 13: 9780691048918

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2000

Synopsis

George Chapman's translations of Homer are among the most famous in the English language. Keats immortalized the work of the Renaissance dramatist and poet in the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer." Swinburne praised the translations for their "romantic and sometimes barbaric grandeur," their "freshness, strength, and inextinguishable fire." The great critic George Saintsbury (1845-1933) wrote: "For more than two centuries they were the resort of all who, unable to read Greek, wished to know what Greek was. Chapman is far nearer Homer than any modern translator in any modern language." This volume presents the original text of Chapman's translation of the Odyssey (1614-15), making only a small number of modifications to punctuation and wording where they might confuse the modern reader. The editor, Allardyce Nicoll, provides an introduction, textual notes, a glossary, and a commentary. Garry Wills's preface to the Odyssey explores how Chapman's less strained meter lets him achieve more delicate poetic effects as compared to the Iliad. Wills also examines Chapman's "fine touch" in translating "the warm and human sense of comedy" in the Odyssey.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold.
--John Keats

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Chapman's Homer provided for the Iliad and the Odyssey exactly what the King James Bible (also published in 1611) did for the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in English: it offered a stylistically vigorous and morally powerful translation that has influenced generations of subsequent readers, even as new versions have proliferated."--Jan M. Ziolkowski, Harvard University

"Chapman's versions inspired English poets for centuries after his time. They rest on a minute and perceptive reading of the texts. And they retain their power to fascinate and provoke anyone interested in Homer and his afterlife, in Renaissance ideas about classical and modern poetry, or in the development of the language of English poetry."--Anthony T. Grafton, Princeton University

From Publishers Weekly

Immortalized by John Keats in his poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," two nearly 400-year-old masterpieces of canonical translation Chapman's versions of The Iliad (re-published in 1998) and The Odyssey (coming this month) are now both available in U.S. editions for the first time since 1957. Even stalwart fans of Robert Fagles's recent triumphs will want these versions, which retain their visionary clarity and power. In the words of Keats: "Oft of one wide expanse had I been told/ That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:/ Yet did I never breathe its pure serene/ Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:/ Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/ When a new planet swims into his ken;/ Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes/ He stared at the Pacific and all his men/ Look'd at each other with a wild surmise / Silent, upon a peak in Darien."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0691048916
• ISBN 13: 9780691048918
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 524
• Editor: Nicoll Allardyce