An Iliad (Vintage International)

Author: Baricco, Alessandro

Color: Black

Edition: Reprint

Number Of Pages: 176

Details:

A bold re-imagining of our civilization’s greatest tale of war, from the acclaimed and bestselling author of Silk. In An Iliad, Alessandro Baricco re-creates the siege of Troy through the voices of twenty-one Homeric characters, in the narrative idiom of our modern imagination. From the return of Chryseis to the burial of Hector, we see through human eyes and feel with human hearts the unforgettable events first recounted almost three thousand years ago. Imbuing the stuff of legend with a startling new relevancy and humanity, Baricco gives us The Iliad as we have never known it. His transformative achievement is certain to delight and fascinate all readers of Homer’s indispensable classic.

Reviews:

“For all those curious about The Iliad but intimidated by its heft, Baricco’s book offers a swift, stylish, summer-reading version of the great epic.”

— San Francisco Chronicle“A taut and mesmerizing tale.” —

The Seattle Times“Baricco divides the tale into a series of monologues by characters both major and minor. The result is compelling, occasionally thrilling.”

— Entertainment Weekly

About the Author:

Alessandro Baricco was born in Turin in 1958 and still makes his home there. The author of four previous novels, he has won the Prix Médicis Étranger in France and the Selezione Campiello, Viareggio, and Palazzo al Bosco prizes in Italy. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chryseis It all began on a day of violence. For nine years the Achaeans had besieged Troy: often they needed provisions or animals or women, and then they abandoned the siege and went to get what they wanted by plundering the nearby cities. That day it was the turn of Thebes, my city. They seized what they wanted and brought it to their ships. I was among the women they carried off. I was a beauty: when, in their camp, the Achaean chieftains divided up the spoils, Agamemnon saw me and wanted me for himself. He was the king of kings, and the commander of all the Achaeans: he brought me to his tent, and to his bed. He had a wife, at home, called Clytemnestra. He loved her. But that day he saw me and wanted me for himself. Some days afterward my father came to the camp. His name was Chryses, and he was a priest of Apollo. He was an old man. He brought splendid gifts and asked the Achaeans, in exchange, to set me free. As I said: he was an old man and a priest of Apollo. All the Achaean chiefs, after seeing and listening to him, were in favor of accepting the ransom and honoring the noble figure who had come to them as a suppliant. Only one among them was not won over: Agamemnon. He rose and railed brutally against my father, saying to him, "Go away, old man, and don't show yourself again. I will not give up your daughter: she will grow old in Argos, in my house, far from her homeland, working at the loom and sharing my bed. Go now, if you want to go with your life." My father, frightened, obeyed. He went away in silence and disappeared along the shore of the sea—you might have said into the sound of the sea. Then, suddenly, death and suffering fell upon the Achaeans. For nine days, arrows flew, killing men and beasts, and the pyres of the dead blazed without respite. On the tenth day, Achilles summoned the army to a meeting. In front of all the men he said, "If things continue like this, we'll have to launch our ships and go home in order to escape death. But let's consult a prophet, or a seer, or a priest who can tell us what is happening and free us from this scourge." Then Calchas rose, the most famous among the seers. He knew all the things that have been, are, and will be. He was a wise man. He said, "You want to know the reason for this, Achilles, and I will tell you. But swear that you will protect me, because what I'm going to say will offend a man who has power over all the Achaeans and whom all the Achaeans obey. I'm risking my life: swear that you will protect me." Achilles told him not to be afr...

EAN: 9780307275394

Release Date: 14-08-2007

Languages: English

Item Note: Good shape with typical wear. Has a remainder mark. Paperback Used - Very Good Ships fast! 2007Reprint

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood

Binding: Paperback