The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson

 The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017        ISBN 9780393089059

Thanks to Christopher Nolan's film, The Odyssey is having a little time in the sunshine of notice. As I write this review, I've yet to see the film (although I've read/seen quite a few reviews!), but in preparation I thought I would read the poem for the first time since my early twenties (i.e. several decades ago).

I chose the Emily Wilson translation for a few reasons - it's current, it was of interest on the internet because it's the first translation by a woman and I wanted to see what the fuss was about and whether the sex of the translator made a difference (it doesn't really), but mostly because it was the copy closest to hand when I decided a re-read was on the cards.

On the whole, it is an excellent translation for the twenty-first century. Wilson has used iambic pentameter as her metre, but it's not a self-consciously poetry, she has used (mostly) a very slightly heightened language, but the story is very easily understood and very readable, and she has provided the reader with a good introduction to the poem and the milieu in which it was written, what it might mean both then and now, excellent notes, glossary, pronunciation guide and useful maps. It's a complete package.

Of the apparatus, it is the Translator's Note that is most interesting. It is an excellent essay on the difficulties not only of translating the poem and making it accessible to a modern audience, but also on the weight that earlier translations bring to bear on anyone who attempts it. It's well worth reading, and would serve as a good guide for readers of any translation of anything, especially poetry.

The poem is best-known for Odysseus's adventures fighting the Cyclops, hearing the Sirens, skirting Scylla and Charybdis, the Lotus Eaters etc., but in many ways those are minor bits of excitement in what is a much bigger story that Homer (Wilson's introduction speculates well on who Homer might have been) is trying to tell.

Whereas The Iliad is a story about war and glory, The Odyssey is much more a story of overcoming the difficulties life throws up at us, the choices we make (and the ones we don't) and the consequences of our actions. Like much of the greatest literature, within it's narrative The Odyssey gives the reader pause to think about their own life and reflect on how much all of our stories can be seen to be reflected in Odysseus's struggles. Everyone should have their own interpretation of The Odyssey, it seems to me.

Mostly, in my view, it's a book about coming home, and about not giving up on that ideal. Homer is too sophisticated to give us a happily ever after, but coming back to where you are known and loved and wanted is at the heart of the story. Fear of what it means to not be those things is also here - for much of the poem Odysseus, through his deceitfulness and trickery is trying to ascertain whether his home does indeed know him, love him and want him.

Wilson has her own views on this, and on other things, which don't necessarily gel with mine, but which like the poem itself are worth thinking about and responding to in a thoughtful way. One of the interesting things about The Odyssey is that there are so many powerful women portrayed in it, many of whom have a lot of control over Odysseus, which seems remarkable for something written thousands of years ago. I think the depiction of women in the poem speaks to age-old questions that, even in patriarchal warrior societies, still need to be reckoned with, and Wilson has thoughtful things to say about that, as well as on the depiction of slavery and the actions of the gods.

This is an excellent book in every way - a great translation well supported with supplementary material. If you have watched the film and want to go deeper, I can highly recommend this book.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Slim the Standardbearer by Ronald Lewin

 Slim the Standardbearer: a biography of Field-Marshall The Viscount Slim by Ronald Lewin

Ware, Herts.: Wordsworth Editions, 1999 (first published 1976)  ISBN 184022214X

This is a workmanlike biography of an interesting man. The major part of the book focusses on Slims' Burma Campaign, which in a sense is right and proper, but I when I finished the book I felt a little short-changed, as Slim has written so well about that himself. I was hoping for a little more insight into the man than this book delivered, but it was still worth reading to remind oneself of what an extraordinary life he led.

The son of a failed businessman, Slim dreamed of an early age of joining the army, but funds (lack of) seemed to scupper that wish, until the advent of war in 1914. Despite the myth that Slim became a Field-Marshall from the ranks, he was actually commissioned immediately as a second lieutenant owing to his time spend before the war in the Birmingham University OTC (despite not being a student at the University - the first example of "Slim's luck"). He was sent to Gallipoli, where he was wounded: after his recovery he was sent to Mesopotamia to assist in the relief of Kut, where he was wounded a second time. 

After the war he was transferred to the Indian Army where he served with Gurkhas. It seems that this was one of the happiest times of his life - there was much low-level action against rebellious tribes, he met and married his wife, and slowly made his way through the ranks, impressing at Staff College in Delhi and at the Imperial Defence College.

Interestingly he also spent these years writing short stories for money (even though Lewin's book is only just short of a hagiography, Slim's nose for cash runs through the book, from ensuring expense accounts were suitably large, to augmenting his pension in any way he thought he could), which I think is a fascinating insight, although one that Lewin doesn't ponder too much.

Although he is famous for his campaigning in Burma in World War Two, he also served in Ethiopia against the Italians (where he was wounded yet again), and in Iraq, before being sent East. There, in Burma, he famously led the retreat back to India, and then the advance back to Rangoon, through a series of excellent strategic and tactical manoeuvres, and (with the close support of Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Commander of the South East Asian Theatre) working his way through the politics of logistics, supply and recalcitrant commanders (Wingate, Stilwell).

This is the major part of Lewin's work, and he describes well what is required of someone commanding an Army, and how the fighting is just one part. It was in Burma that Slim's ability to get people to follow him, his ability to listen, to plan on the run, and to connect with the average soldier were so much on display. Burma in many ways was (and is) a forgotten campaign, and so Slim's capability has been lost in time as the European and Pacific Campaigns have garnered most of the glory. He was probably the best British field commander of the War.

After the War Slim finally got the job for which he had been destined for a long time - Chief of General Staff. It was a difficult time to undertake the role, with the Army moving from a wartime footing to understanding what it's role would be during the Cold War. Slim instituted many reforms during this time.

Then seemingly out of the blue he was asked to be Governor-General of Australia. He took on the role with gusto, and was again a trailblazer, being the first of the "modern" G-Gs, touring the country and being a force for unification, while trying to stay outside of politics.

His final years as Constable of Windsor Castle were ones of enjoyment and social activities, before his decline and death in 1970.

Lewin's book covers this all in appropriate detail, but with little verve or insight - there is a later biography by Robert Lyman which may be better than this one.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell