The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)As a fan of Narayan's work, I was fascinated to see how he would tackle the grand subject of the Ramayana, a work that runs through and certainly influences all of Narayan's stories. The result is one of his most delightful and beautifully written novels. I think it is important to approach this book not as "THE" Ramayana, but one storyteller's unique vision of the timeless epic--even as a variation on one of his Malgudi novels (the characters certainly bare a distinct resemblance). Narayan's writing is extremely sensitive, refined, yet full of humor and charm. Throughout he adopts the tone of a storyteller, openly acknowledging that he is only "retelling" a story by a much greater storyteller, and leaving out the juciest parts at that. His little asides where he explains, "And here the poet described the scene so touchingly..." are at once reverent and amusing, as Narayan wisely omits anything too excessive or poetic that might derail his narrative. But the story itself is wonderful, a colorful, full-blooded telling of the Ramayana, sparse, fast-moving, but with all the hallmarks of Narayan's style. This book is a must for any fan of Narayan's fiction, Indian writing, or mythology. Narayan effectively conveys the epic's timelessness, with characters and situations that echo throughout literature and film, full of profound human emotions. And this is always one of Narayan's chief strengths, to create believable, complex human characters. In his treatment, even Rama and Sita emerge as sympathetic individuals, not the cardboard cut-outs all too common given their extraordinary powers. In short, this is a magical and engaging work that I know I will read again and again in the years to come. I invite you to do the same!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)

This selection from the great classic of Indian literature is the heroic tale of Prince Rama. The stories chief episodes are Rama's courtship of the youthful Sita, their exile, Sita's abduction, the search, and the great battle with Ravana, her abductor.

Click here for more information about The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)

Read More...

Homer's Odyssey 6-8: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Check out my review of Steadman's Symposium to see why I love this series so much. Again Steadman gives us a large font, this time not a blow up of the Oxford Text but what appears to be his own font design. It is about 75% bigger than Loeb, dark, straight, really a joy to read. Since Steadman does not use up the entire page as he does in the Symposium (which includes the Oxford critical apparatus on the bottom, which this text lacks) he could have made the font even bigger, a quibble which he will perhaps address in future editions/volumes.
It cannot be overemphasized how wonderful it is to have the vocab on facing pages. The vocab in Homer is unbearably extensive, and what a joy not to be flipping through a lexicon. You can still look up some words, and you probably will if nothing else to find the roots, which can be helpful in vocab retention, but Homeric vocab is pretty straightforward, and Steadman's glosses cover the range of meanings well.
His grammatical notes are not as extensive as they are in his Symposium. There Steadman gives you explanations and interpretations of EVERY conceivable difficulty. Maybe because the syntax of Homer is much simpler than the syntax of Plato, Steadman is less generous with his help here. Of course, he has to give you about twice as much vocab here than in Plato, so he may simply not have room. Also not in this volume are the helpful same-page paradigms which he gives in his Plato.
None of this is meant to knock this book. I absolutely recommend both books, and I intend to buy virtually anything Steadman produces in this series, which are priced very reasonably.
As to the Odyssey itself, it is either the greatest book ever written in any language, or it is the second greatest after the Iliad. Starting on Book 6 was a good idea since Beetham covers book 5. I don't know anything about Geoffrey Steadman, but I hope he is either a young man or he writes very fast. I want to see him cover all of Homer and as much of Plato as he can.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Homer's Odyssey 6-8: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary

Facing each set of 20 lines from Books 6-8 of Thomas W. Allen's edition of Homer's Odyssey (originally published by Oxford University Press in 1908) is a single page of corresponding vocabulary and intermediate level grammatical commentary. Once readers have memorized the core vocabulary list, they will be able to read the Homeric Greek and consult all relevant vocabulary and commentary without turning a page.

Click here for more information about Homer's Odyssey 6-8: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary

Read More...

Homer's Odyssey 9-12: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have just finished using Steadman's edition of Homer Odyssey 9-12 in my fourth semester Greek course here at Miami University. We read Book 11. 362-696 in seven class days, a little less than 50 lines a day. The students found this a reasonable amount of Homer to read, by their own account spending around two hours per class to write out an accurate translation. The amount of vocabulary and commentary was sufficient for them to read this amount of Greek with very few additional resources--although some of my students regularly use Perseus for parsing weird forms. There is a glossary of more common words in the back and a synopsis of the verb luo'''. As in Steadman's other volumes, the commentary is restricted to grammatical matters rather than literary matters. I think this works great in a classroom setting, since an instructor can decide what elements to emphasize in discussing the text. There are some basic introductory remarks about Homeric language and meter which are concise and useful.
I use the JACT Reading Greek textbook and the Homer selection there is taken from Odyssey 6. Steadman has another volume covering books 6-8, and I toyed with the idea of using that to follow up the JACT selection. However, Odyssey 6-8 are not the most scintillating reading in the Odyssey, whereas books 9-12 are nothing if not scintillating. Steadman's texts are meant to be read from beginning to end, but they are also designed to be selectable, so there is no problem starting and stopping anywhere you please. All that students need is right there on the facing page. In fact it is possible to download the pdf for free and select a few pages if you just want to give a taste of Homer, but the book itself is so reasonably priced, it is worth it for students to buy.
The text is based on T.W.Allen's 1908 Greek edition of the Odyssey, which is out of copyright. It is reproduced in a somewhat unattractive font that could be a little bigger in my humble opinion, but that is quibbling. Since the book is self-published, there are errors here and there, but not many. Moreover, it is possible to contact the author via his Blog with errors and he will correct them in future versions. This is a tremendous boon to Greek instructors everywhere, to have a low-priced intermediate text that has handy resources for students who are just starting to read Homer. Compared to other texts that have glossaries and commentaries inconveniently placed in the back of the book, this text reduces the tedium of flipping back and forth. Steadman has done for these books of the Odyssey what Clyde Pharr's version has done for the first half of the Aeneid.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Homer's Odyssey 9-12: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary

Facing each set of 20 lines from Books 9-12 of Thomas W. Allen's edition of Homer's Odyssey (originally published by Oxford University Press in 1908) is a single page of corresponding vocabulary and intermediate level grammatical commentary. Once readers have memorized the core vocabulary list, they will be able to read the Homeric Greek and consult all relevant vocabulary and commentary without turning a page.

Click here for more information about Homer's Odyssey 9-12: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary

Read More...