For a translation of The Odyssey that knows what it is talking about and sings as it speaks, this is the one to read." - New Statesman "A masterpiece of translation-fluent, elegant, vigorous." - Rowan Williams, University of Cambridge "As the first English translation of this ancient tale by a woman, this lively, fast-paced retelling of Homer's epic is long overdue.
Considerations of gender aside, perhaps Wilson's greatest achievement is to disprove the increasingly held view that versions of ancient texts require an established poet to be parachuted in, like a literary James Bond, to rescue their English lines from the prosaic. She scrapes away at old encrusted layers, until she exposes what lies beneath." - Financial Times "It is immensely satisfying to see The Odyssey in the hands of such a careful and creative scholar who can pore over the semantic nuances of Homer's Greek as well as those of her own English. Wilson translates as though translation is a moral choice - you owe fidelity not to the author, nor to the protagonist, but to the truth behind the words and the times. That's why a new kind of guide through his wild landscapes, across his wine-dark seas, is to be welcomed." - The Guardian "Wilson's Odyssey feels like a restoration of an old, familiar building that had over the years been encrusted with too much gilt. swift, unornamented text." - The Spectator "The joy of Homer is precisely the generosity and suppleness of the material, the fact that it resists being read in a single way. This is certainly an Odyssey for our moment. Emily Wilson proves an appropriately beguiling female translator. Her translation, spare and provocative, will engage a new generation of students." - Times Literary Supplement ". Armed with a sharp, scholarly rigour, she has produced a translation that exposes centuries of masculinist readings of the poem." - Charlotte Higgins, Poetry Book of the Day - The Guardian "Wilson's approach has been to translate the text in a way that resonates with today's politics. Emily Wilson's crisp and musical version is a cultural landmark. "The first version of Homer's groundbreaking work by a woman will change our understanding of it for ever.