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Journeys Through Ancient Literature
by Emily Wilson
From the most celebrated translator of our time comes a visionary exploration of how translation reshapes and enriches our understanding of the ancient world.
In this sharp and often entertaining tour through antiquity, Emily Wilson―whose renditions of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad have captured a generation's imagination―explores the complicated terrain of reading and writing about the ancient past. Drawing on twenty years of scholarship and teaching, Wilson explores the difficult choices that translators must make, the pleasures of finding new solutions to old problems, and the inevitable frustrations of never fully capturing what is in the original work. Across chapters that range from the politics of Helen of Troy to the obscenities of Aristophanes, from Roman imitation of Greek models to contemporary debates over "foreignizing" and "domesticizing" styles, Wilson examines how modern norms of gender, sexuality, violence, humor, and power complicate our readings of ancient works, and how translation always risks denaturing what is unique and strange about the ancient world. Brilliant, erudite, and yet accessible to readers with no classical background, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is at once an introduction to the wonders of Greek and Roman literature, a manifesto for the value of translation in a rapidly changing world, and an invitation to encounter ancient cultures anew.
"In this dazzling exploration, Wilson, translator of recent editions of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, serves as an intrepid guide to the storm-tossed seas of literary translation ... Through buoyant, accessible analyses and dynamic examples, Wilson artfully connects the ancient world to the present day. This is essential reading." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A lively exploration of ancient literature." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Vaulting from the ancient to the modern and back again, this collection is erudite, insightful and provocative. An unparalleled insight into the work of a classicist and translator at the height of their powers." ―Paul Cooper, author of Fall of Civilizations
"We're incredibly lucky to have Emily Wilson writing about the art, politics and ethics of translation and retranslation. Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is an impressive display of Wilson's expertise, conviction and wit. Her impact within and without the world of literary translation has been huge." ―Jen Calleja, author of Fair: The Life-Art of Translation
This information about Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a MacArthur Fellow. In addition to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca. She lives in Philadelphia.
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