It is my ambition to collect the Great Books of the Western World. I should probably read them too, but I am much better at obtaining books than reading them! I don’t want the volumes, as originally published by Britannica, with bible-thin paper and tiny text. My idea is to select nice editions such as the Landmark Histories, or the Arden Shakespeare.
The first, as I set out on this journey, is appropriately Homer’s Odyssey. I have chosen the Robert Fagles translation – it seems very popular. I have owned this for a while and have even read it! Though it probably bears a re-read at some point. My son recently had a homework based on the Cyclops. I reviewed that chapter (or book) and it was more readable than I remember so I might have another go at the whole lot in the new year.
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