[audiobook] A History of the American Musical Theatre: No Business Like It by Nathan Hurwitz in Arts-Photography

Review

222 of 225 people found the following review helpful. In short: In 2015; this is the best translation to get.By James LiuBefore I begin; a disclaimer. This review is not written to help you decide whether to read the Iliad. It is to help you decide which translation of the Iliad to choose. In short: In 2015; this is the best translation to get. Get it in paper; not Kindle.Peter Green states in the introduction that he is following in the footsteps of Lattimore; to preserve as much of the poem in Greek--wording; sentence structure; meter; and so on--in English; but to also make it declaimable. It is a translation to be read aloud. Thus; it is also a challenge to Fagless translation; among whose virtues is how well it works as an audiobook.To review; there are several major verse modern translations of the Iliad. Lattimores is closest to the original Greek; and for undergraduate work can substitute for the original well enough. There is the Fagles translation; in modern free verse; is wonderful to read aloud. The Fagles Odyssey was on Selected Shorts once; and for a long time after I insisted that there was no other worthwhile contemporary translation of Homer. I swore by it. Lombardos translation is pretty common in colleges because of the price and the slangy presentation. Then there is Fitzgerald; which some swear by; but Fitzgeralds translation is loose with the Greek and mannered and fey in its English. It even translates Odysseus as "Ulysses;" a sure sign that fidelity to the Greek is not worth the translators trouble. I am missing some others; Im sure.So let us begin at the beginning. In the Greek; the Iliad has "μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος" Quite literally; "Rage! sing goddess of the son of Peleus Achilles." μῆνιν means; more or less; the anger that engenders revenge; rage; wrath; anger are all ok to some degree. (Its complicated; an entire scholarly treatise is written on the meaning of the word.) Green gives; "Wrath; goddess; sing of Achilles Peleuss sons [/ wrath]." Fagles gives "Rage--Goddess sing the rage of Peleuss son Achilles." Lattimore gives "Sing; goddess; the anger of Peleus son Achilleus." Green and Fagles are right to put the first word first. This is poetry; after all; the order of the words matter; the first especially. The first word is the theme of the poem; the way it is directed first against Agamemnon; then toward the Trojans; and then tempered for a common moment of humanity; is the internal trajectory of the whole epic. Wrath might be best of all; since it conveys that it is anger in a sense that is unfamiliar to modern readers.Once; in my second year of taking Greek; I was told that there was no use of literal translations. Take it far enough; and you wind up with a textbook on how to read the book in the original Greek. Make it into readable English; and you wind up with a host of compromises where thousands of close translations might do. Go far enough you wind up with Girardouxs "The Trojan War Will Not Take Place;" worthwhile on its own; but not really a "translation." That professor preferred Fitzgerald; but easy for her to do; she could read anything in Greek without any help. For us mortals with mostly forgotten Greek; or no Greek at all; closeness to the original in a translation should be treasured.In the end; translating Homer is a game of compromises; How much of the strangeness of 2500 year old lines and 3200 year old motivations do you keep? Dactylic hexameter calls for lines much longer than any form of English verse; so shorter lines or not? And so on. For me; Fagles is as far to compromise with how English verse should go as I am willing to accept. For what its worth; Lattimores English verse is better than his critics complain of.Starting from no knowledge of Greek; Id choose Green. Over Lattimore because its friendlier for the beginner and not worse as far as I can tell for a serious third reading. Over Fagles because the true-to-the-Greek line lengths convey the way the poem drives itself forward better in Greens line by line than in Fagless free verse.Also. The introduction includes a plot summary of the whole Trojan War; of which the Iliad only covers a small portion. I have never seen such a succinct and complete synopsis before. There is also a synopsis of the poem keyed to the poem in the back matter to help find your place; an enlightening glossary of names and concepts to help you through your first read; and footnotes to inform the reader of context that has since been lost.Word to the wise re: Kindles. These are long verse lines. To get complete lines on a Kindle screen; you need a Kindle that allows text to display in landscape mode.Even then; complete lines only work in a very small font size. Get this in hardback for now. The hardback is stitched and bound to keep; so it is worth your money.93 of 101 people found the following review helpful. I got the T.E. Lawrence translation -- its prose!!By Sarah A. RolphThis is not a book review; but a warning: there is a technical problem with this page. I received a different translation than the one shown here; and apparently the page changes randomly (since someone else says this is the page for buying a copy of the Iliad!). Ive reported the problem and it is being looked into. Because you cant leave a review without a star rating; Ive using one star for this warning. Thats no reflection on the book described here; which I hope to purchase once corrects this problem. I know this is an unusual use of book reviews; but I think its important for people to know that if they purchase from this page there is no telling what they might receive. I will delete this once the problem is solved;3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Compelling characters; bloody battles; this is classic lit definitely worth reading!By Ami | luvtoreadSet during the Trojan War; tension brews between Achilles and Agamemnon on the Greek side. Agamemnon steals Achillesrsquo; war prize; Briseis; and Achilles then refuses to fight. The Trojans start to move in closer; under the leadership of Hector. Will Achilles fight or doom his comrades? The Iliad is a very bloody piece of literature. Warfare dominates almost every scene; and the book isnrsquo;t for the faint of heart. Besides the compelling human characters; gods play a part in The Iliad; and the gods just didnrsquo;t interest me at all. I had trouble following who was who; and which god was on which side; and I just didnrsquo;t care. But the human characters; especially Hector and Patroclus; I really loved. Definitely worth reading this piece of classic literature!