Dear classics reader,
In this week’s Trojan Horse you will find:
A survey of different translations of The Odyssey;
Birthday wishes to Christina Stead;
A preview of coming attractions and other notices;
And for paid subscribers:
The week’s new classics – including a new Wisława Szymborska selection;
And our final discussion of Bonjour Tristesse – with a note on car accidents.
This newsletter may be too long for your email inbox. If so, please click ‘View entire message’ at the bottom – or visit Substack.
Homer’s Odyssey
Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of The Odyssey hits the cinemas today.
I was delighted to be invited recently by Penguin to write ‘an essential guide to The Odyssey’, including recommendations of which translation to read. You can read my article here; it was published yesterday.
As it was Penguin commission, I was only allowed to list translations published by Penguin Random House. Luckily Penguin publish most of the best translations! But here are three more I would have included otherwise:
The Odyssey of Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore (1965)
‘A splendid achievement. . . the best translation there is of a great, perhaps the greatest, poet.’ – New York Times Book Review
[UK / US] Harper Perennial Modern Classics | 400 pages
The Odyssey, translated by Anthony Verity (2016)
‘Verity offers an excellent, clear, traditionally literal but avowedly non-poetic translation.’ Colin Burrow, London Review of Books
[UK / US] Oxford World’s Classics | 384 pages | introduced by William Allan
The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson (2017)
‘Emily Wilson’s crisp and musical version is a cultural landmark. . . . This translation will change the way the poem is read in English.’ Charlotte Higgins, Guardian
[UK / US] W. W. Norton | 592 pages
Happy Birthday Christina Stead
In other news, today was the Australian novelist Christina Stead’s birthday. She was born on this day in 1901.
Stead was the daughter of a Sydney marine biologist. She left Australia in 1928 and worked in a Parisian bank before moving to the USA in 1935, where she taught creative writing at New York University and worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. She lived for many years in Europe with her husband, the novelist William J. Blake, but after he died in 1968 she returned to Australia and became a fellow in creative arts at the Australian National University, Canberra. She won the Patrick White Award in 1974. She was ‘the Cassandra of the modern novel in English’, wrote Angela Carter. ‘Reading her seems like plunging into the mess of life itself.’
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead (1940)
Sam and Henny Pollit have too many children, too little money, and too much loathing for each other. As Sam uses the children’s adoration to feed his own voracious ego, Henny watches in bleak despair, knowing the bitter reality that lies just below his mad visions. A chilling novel of family life, the relations between parents and children, husbands and wives, The Man Who Loved Children, is acknowledged as a contemporary classic.
[UK] Everyman’s Library | 530 pages
[US] Picador USA | 576 pages | introduced by Randall Jarrell
Coming Attractions and Other Notices
Future monthly read-alongs
For a preview of our upcoming monthly read-alongs, take a peak here.
August – Their Eyes Were Watching God
Next month we will be reading Zora Neale Huston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God over three weeks. Join us! Here are the details.
Big Think – Summer 2026
I’m very glad to have a piece in Big Think’s current quarterly print magazine. The theme of their summer issue is ‘The Opt-Out Nation’: I’ve written about Bartleby the Scrivener and other forms of opting out in literature. You can read my piece here.
Here is some more information about the issue. Big Think is here on Substack. Become a member to get your copy of the print edition.
Annual book subscription
If you’re enjoying our read-alongs, why not treat yourself to the Hatchards Classic Book Club annual book subscription?
You (or a friend) can receive all the books we read each month here on Read the Classics, beautifully gift-wrapped and delivered to your door, anywhere in the world, as well as a year’s complimentary subscription to Read the Classics, so you can choose to read along with us, if you wish.
To find out more, follow this link or email Hatchards directly: subscriptions@hatchards.co.uk
