Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays

20th Century Views

by George Steiner (Editor), Robert Fagles (Editor)

Collection of Critical Essays Edited by George Steiner and Robert Fagles, Prentice Hall Inc., 1965, GOOD+. This is a Collectible Paperback Text book. The book is tight and square with clean pages. The book is bumped at all corners and along all edges and shows shelf wear. There is a small crease at the bottom right front corner. A Nice Reading Copy! The aim of this series is to present the best in contemporary critical opinion on major authors, providing a twentieth century perspective on their changing status in an era of profound revaluation, (Maynard Mark, Series Editor, Yale University).

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

George Steiner was a French and American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator whose work explored the relationship between language, literature, and society, with a particular focus on the moral and cultural consequences of the Holocaust. Multilingual from an early age, Steiner grew up speaking German, English, and French, and studied the classics under his father, while overcoming a physical handicap with his mother’s encouragement. His family relocated to the United States during World War II, an experience that shaped his lifelong reflections on survival, morality, and human cruelty. He studied literature, mathematics, and physics at the University of Chicago, earned an MA at Harvard, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. Steiner held academic posts across Europe and the United States, including Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva, Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, the first Lord Weidenfeld Professor of Comparative European Literature at Oxford, and Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard, teaching in multiple languages. A prolific writer, he produced influential works in criticism, translation studies, and fiction, including Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, The Death of Tragedy, After Babel, and The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H., blending historical insight with philosophical reflection. His essays and books explored the power and ambivalence of human language, the ethical responsibilities of literature, and the persistence of anti-Semitism, while his fiction offered imaginative examinations of moral and historical dilemmas. Steiner was celebrated for his intellectual breadth and lecturing style, described as prophetic, charismatic, and sometimes doom-laden, and he contributed extensively to journals such as The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. He was married to Zara Steiner, with whom he had two children, David and Deborah, both of whom pursued academic and public service careers. Steiner’s work remains widely respected for its integration of rigorous scholarship, ethical inquiry, and literary sensitivity, marking him as one of the foremost thinkers in twentieth-century literature and comparative studies.

Reviews

[Vicky Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Certain glories of the Iliad are fully visible only in the mirror of the Odyssey."

Likewise, even a close reading of the pair can be improved by analyzing and comparing the works with a good commentary. This work is a collection of scholarly essays that analyze aspects of Homer's epic works in different directions. The large variety of essays covers literary analysis, historical context, mythography, language and writing style, as well as oral tradition and the history of the way Homer's poems have been received across the ages. The authors use diverse critical methods; such as a formalist close reading of the text, structural and intertextual analysis, historical/biographical critiques, feminist perspectives, and of course, philosophical and ethical readings.

There is the expected analysis of authorship of the poems. There is a detailed look at the theme of 'fire' across the Iliad. There was a tracking of Homer's structural features in the text, such as building a wall to bridge scenes between reversals in order to keep them from becoming routs. There are discussions of the use of various elements throughout, such as the organization of episodes around a hero's journey, or catalogues, and how these elements link singular fates to collective memory. And, of particular interest was the discussion of metaphors.

Character analysis is not neglected, and neither is a discussion of values like honor, hubris, cunning, and fate. For example, Odysseus displays a paradox of wisdom and presumption. His ingenuity often solves problems, while at the same time delaying his homecoming. This illustrates the costs of the wily intellect. These discussions are balanced with questions of justice, violence, divine intervention, and human agency.

For such a smallish book, there is a lot here. And, much of it will take you down a rabbit hole of hours of rereading portions of the text. It is not the type of book that will be tossed aside after reading, but the reader will probably return to dissect points and ideas discussed. This is because the book is quite condensed and doesn't copy out the portions of text being discussed. It allows you to decide when and where to open your own copy of Homer or the various other commentaries being referenced. Many of the ideas will launch you off onto your own new journeys through the seas of Homer. It is a classic from 1962, and the Homer translator I've most recently read, Robert Fagles, was a contributor to this book.

[James Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

“With quick interest I summoned up a whole population of invented persons. Of the fiction writers Balzac, perhaps, might supply him? No. Flaubert? No. Dostoevsky or Tolstoy then? Their people are exciting, wonderfl, but not complete. Shakespeare surely. But no, again. The footlights, the proscenium arch, the fatal curtain are all there to present to us not complete, all-round beings, but only three hours of passionate conflict. I came to rest on Goethe.

"What abont Faust?" I said. And then, as a second shot, "Or Hamlet?*

"Faust!" said Joyce. "Far from being a complete man, he isn't a man at all. Is he an old man or a yonng man? Where are his home and his family? We don’t know. And he can't be complete because he's never alone. Mephistopheles is always hanging round him at his side or heels. We see a lot of him, that's all.

It was easy to see the answer in Joyce's mind to his own question. "Your complete man in literature is, I suppose, Ulysses?"

“Yes," said Joyce. "No-age Faust isn't a man. But you mentioned Hamlet. Hamlet is a human being, but he is a son only. Ulysses is son to Laertes, but he is father to Telemachus, husband to Penelope, lover of Calypso, companion in arms of the Greek warriors around Troy, and King of Ithaca. He was subjected to many trials, but with wisdom and courage came through them all. Don't forget that he was a war dodger who tried to evade military service by simulating madness. He might never have taken up arms and gone to Troy, but the Greek re- cruiting sergeant was too clever for him and, while he was ploughing the sands, placed young Telemachus in front of his plough. But once at the war the conscientious objector became a jusqu auboutist. When the others wanted to abandon the siege he insisted on staying till Troy should fall.


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[Alvaro de Menard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction tells us this is a "a book based entirely on the principle of delight", and it delivers in those terms. These are not esoteric essays by Homerists. Instead, we get insights from people such as Pound, Tolstoy, Lukacs, Kafka, Fitzgerald, and D. H. Lawrence. There is Homer-inspired poetry from Auden, Cecil Day-Lewis, etc.

One thing that's missing is some editorial notes to point out factual errors from some of the older essays. Powys for example suggests 400 years between the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey, a highly unlikely figure.

The end result is a bit uneven, but as a whole successful.

[Debbie Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction by Steiner ("Homer and the Scholars") and a couple other essays (Dimock and W.B. Stanford) were very good. The excerpt from Whitman was worthwhile. The rest was very mediocre.

[sch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few duds, but lots of good material for teaching and starting places for inquiry.