The Penelopiad
(Margaret Atwood)
Fans of Margaret Atwood will be pleased to hear that her twelfth novel, The Penelopiad, shows no sign of her age slowing her down. The novel takes the familiar story of Odysseus? role in the Trojan War and subsequent wanderings, and spins it around to tell it from the perspective of his wife who has been waiting to have her say for almost three thousand years, and of the twelve maids who are unaccountably hanged at the end of The Odyssey.
Penelope is renowned as the faithful wife of Odysseus, spending ten years fending off suitors at home while her husband is being waylaid by lustful nymphs and goddesses. This novel recounts her story in the first person, with Atwood?s usual sympathy and deft turn of description for her favourite leitmotiv, the downtrodden yet exceptionally intelligent woman. Penelope herself is drawn in colourful detail, from her wry tale of her father throwing her into the sea as a baby, to her marriage to Odysseus, and her disdain for her cousin, Helen of Troy. Helen makes a few cameo roles as an entertainingly egotistical siren, as does Odysseus, who despite his brief appearances immediately springs to life in the reader?s mind as the wily, roguish character of the myth.
Despite its light touch and wit, Atwood has all her literary facts behind her, with the substance of the characters lifted from The Iliad, The Odyssey and the Homeric hymns, as well of course as a great deal of her own rich imagination. Women in Greek epic poetry tend to play the supporting roles, and here Penelope and her twelve handmaids take centre-stage in an entertaining, accessible and very original ancient story.
Resumos Relacionados
- The Odissey
- The Odyssey
- Odyssey
- The Odyssey
- Ideals Of Ancient Greece Portrayed In The Odyssey
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