Hardcover, 426 pages

English language

Published by Penguin Michael Joseph.

ISBN:
978-0-241-48635-1
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4 stars (1 review)

The final book in Stephen Fry's acclaimed internationally bestselling Greek myths series telling the story of The Odyssey - can a hero find his way home?

Follow Odysseus after he leaves the fallen city of Troy and takes ten long dramatic years - battling monsters, the temptations of goddesses and suffering the curse of Poseidon - to voyage home to his wife Penelope on the island of Ithaca.

2 editions

reviewed The Odyssey by Stephen Fry (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #4)

A fine finish to Fry's tetrology of Greek Myth

4 stars

Because he draws as much from the Aeneid and other sources as from Homer, this takes a long time to properly get to the telling of the Odyssey itself. I could perhaps have done with less of the context, though given it's those aspects of the story I had little if any knowledge of, it's certainly those I've learned most from!

The books rounds out the telling of the ancient Greek myths, and gently, lovingly explores the transitions of humanity from awe and fear of the world to hard work and negotiation both with the world and with other people. The grand canvas of the myth woven of very personal, often selfish, individual stories. I guess like the titular hero, it takes its time, but it does get there in the end.

Subjects

  • Greek Mythology