The Iliad

When Emily Wilsons translation of The Odysseyappeared in 2017revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was fresh, unpretentious and lean (Madeline Miller,The Washington Post)critics lauded it as a revelation (Susan Chira,The New York Times) and a cultural landmark (Charlotte Higgins,Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homers other great epicthe most revered war poem of all time.

The Iliad roars with the clamour of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss and the anguished cries of dying men. It sings, too, of the sublime magnitude of the worldthe fierce beauty of nature and the gods grand schemes beyond the ken of mortals. In Wilsons hands, this thrilling, magical and often horrifying tale now gallops at a pace befitting its legendary battle scenes, in crisp but resonant language that evokes the poems deep pathos and reveals palpably real, even complicated, charactersboth human and divine.

The culmination of a decade of intense engagement with antiquitys most surpassingly beautiful and emotionally complex poetry, WilsonsIliadnow gives us a complete Homer for our generation.

Specially bound paperback edition, with deckle-edging (rough-cut) pages and French flaps.