Book mail
This fabulous edition of John Milton's epic poem came in the mail a few days ago.
The illustrations by Gustave Dore are spot on.
When I purchased this huge tome, I didn't realize the actual size of the book. A pocket book it's not... 🙄😆
But I'm glad I got it, all the same.
I probably won't start this baby for a few weeks until I finish up some of the multitude of books I've started.
#bookmail #poetry #epicpoems
pickWell, this was stirring stuff! It makes some of Uhtred of Bebbanburg's escapades look like a church fête!
There's no getting away from its being a matter of masculine heroics in the extreme; part of me wanted to find it all a bit ridiculous on that account. However, I was audio-drawing and more than once I realised my pen had been hovering motionless over the paper for some minutes. Audio is *definitely* the way to go with this.
pickEmily Wilson's translation gets a HUGE standing O from me, and Audra McDonald's audiobook narration is unbelievably moving and deeply emotional. It's a long listen (took me 4 weeks to get through), but it's worth the commitment. And the quote here from Wilson's introduction could not be more true. The loss throughout the story is staggering in scale, brutal and overwhelming- yet the grief described is so human and so cathartic. Bravo all around.
@dabbe #ThreeListThursday
My three favorites and ones that I still read are.
1. Beowulf
2. Canterbury Tales
3. Don Quixote
so-soThis could have been a really interesting spiritual successor (at the time) to Homer, but this read more like Roman Empire propaganda than an original work.
Virgil does have *some* original ideas and portrayals of the characters and events in the overall story, but it still feels like you're better off reading the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Ch 17: 230 pages in and NOW we get a storyline? #laurasoriginstory #uglyduckling #peoplearemean #andletsnotforgetpattyandhershotgunwedding #andofcourseweendwiththepig #wheresfernwhenyouneedher #hashtagbrigade
I've found the recent, ever-evolving Twitter Discourse on The Odyssey equally maddening, absurd, and fascinating (y'know, in the train wreck way). Has anyone else seen this come through your feeds? Anyway, in this house, YES, The Odyssey is a foundational text that everyone should know about and also, we stan both Fagles and Wilson, end of. Let's have it all! More interpretation! More poetry! More lenses through which to view all of our stories!
#SundayFunday @bookmarktavern
definitely with something in mind, I can't browse, it's no good for me, 😂 😂 if I did, I'd come out with the whole store .
Mind you, that doesn't work either, I have 3 translations of The Aeneid, and let's not even get to how many versions of Frankenstein or Romo and Juliet I have - ummm, 7 for the first and 5 for the second, so yeah, no browsing for me 😂
#SundayFunday @BookmarkTavern
This is one of the many which I have, along with the Iliad: A New Translation by Peter Green. Before I had discovered these books, I did not know that they were around to make these old works an easier read. At first, they were tough but the extras that these books come with, really helped, it's been amazing, I'm reading books that I always thought would be out of my reach, I am truly grateful to these books.
