The Penelopiad
Margaret Atwood decided that it was time that Penelope spoke for herself. In The Odyssey, the daughter of King Icarus is, of course, the quintessential faithful wife. To Booker Prize winner Atwood, Homer's version doesn't hold water: "There are too many inconsistencies." She was especially...
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Margaret Atwood decided that it was time that Penelope spoke for herself. In The Odyssey, the daughter of King Icarus is, of course, the quintessential faithful wife. To Booker Prize winner Atwood, Homer's version doesn't hold water: "There are too many inconsistencies." She was especially disturbed and haunted by the tale about Penelope's 12 hanged maids. In Penelopiad, Atwood recovers the hidden history of literature's most famous lady-in-waiting.
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Format: ebook
ISBN:
9780802197832 (0802197833)
Publish date: December 1st 2007
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Pages no: 200
Edition language: English
Series: Canongate Myths (#2)
I was somewhat trepiditious coming to this after The Handmaid's Tale, which, whilst very good, I found to be heavy going. However, Atwood gives the ghost of Penelope a very modern, chatty voice which is very easy to read. Since the book is also short, this disappeared very rapidly! Penelope delive...
For such a short thing, it certainly packed a punch. Between the unreliable but scathing narrator and the creepy chorus, I found myself running the whole gamut of reactions, from laughter to shudders. It was an interesting way of taking a stab at all the bits of the Odyssey that make you look as...
Irreverent, insightful, funny, deeply humane and empathetic. The myth of Odysseus is one of my favorite parts of Greek mythology: in telling it from the perspective of Penelope -- with a good bit about Penelope's childhood and youth, and her and Odysseus's marriage thrown in for good measure, as w...
Irreverent, insightful, funny, deeply humane and empathetic. The myth of Odysseus is one of my favorite parts of Greek mythology: in telling it from the perspective of Penelope -- with a good bit about Penelope's childhood and youth, and her and Odysseus's marriage thrown in for good measure, as w...
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood is a retelling parts of the Odyssey myth from the perspective of Odysseus's wife, Penelope. The author's aim is to answer two questions she had while reading the Odyssey: what led to the handing of Penelope's 12 maids and what was Penelope really up to? This book ...
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