Homer's Odyssey is one of the world’s most influential poems.
Janet Suzman*, our Chair will be starting the journey by reading the opening 95 lines before handing the story over to the next reader. Translated by Emily Wilson and directed by Tom Littler, on Friday 09 October 2020, the voices of 72 actors will recite this version of the Odyssey. Together with the London Review Bookshop and publishers WW Norton, Jermyn Street Theatre will stream this continuous performance of all 24 books live online.
Books 1 to 4 will stream from 9am on the LRB Bookshop YouTube channel,
Books 5 to 24 will continue at 12 noon on the Jermyn Street Theatre YouTube channeland run until late that night.
The entire reading will remain on YouTube for a week (09 October - 16 October 2020).
Emily Wilson is a 2020 Booker Prize Judge and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Her translation, recapturing the life of the poetry for the 21st century, was hailed as a definitive new version upon its publication in 2017.
Charlotte Higgins for the Guardian on Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey wrote: “This translation will change the way the poem is read in English. Emily Wilson’s crisp and musical version is a cultural landmark.”
BCRPM member, Edith Hallwrote in the Daily Telegraph: “In the history of Odyssey translations, few have exerted such a cultural influence that they become ‘classics’ in their own right…I predict that Emily Wilson will win a place in this roll-call of the most significant translations of the poem in history. She certainly deserves the honour”.
*The full cast of actors reciting the Odyssey on 09 October 2020 comprises:
Janet Suzman, Emma Fielding, Jim Findley, Aaron-Louis Cadogan, Dorothea Myer-Bennett, Theo Ancient, Daphne Alexander, Jack Klaff, Sally Cheng, Naomi Frederick, Burt Caesar, Richard Keightley, Jamael Westman, Miranda Foster, Michael Pennington, Bu Kunene, Bea Svistunenko, Joelle Brabban, Christopher Ravenscroft, Michael Lumsden, Naomi Asaturyan, Richard Derrington, Kirsty Bushell, Rob Heanley, Hannah Kumari, Paddy Stafford, Mercedes Assad, Cindy-Jane Armbruster, Augustina Seymour, Stanton Wright, Lynn Farleigh, Simon Kane, Skye Hallam, Lara Sawalha, Elliot Pritchard, Lydia Bakelmun, Edmund Digby-Jones, Waj Ali, Hannah Morrish, Nalan Burgess, Ellie Nunn, Alice McCarthy, Adam Karim, Helen Reuben, Gavin Fowler, Rebecca Banatvala, Viss Elliot Safavi, Leah Whitaker, Adam Sopp, Judy Rosenblatt, Emanuel Vuso, Jessie Bedrossian, Annabel Bates, Tiwalade Ibirogba-Olulode, Atilla Akinci, Sam Crerar, David Sturzaker, Paula James, Issy Van Randwyck, Ian Hallard, Asha Kingsley, Miranda Raison, Samuel Blenkin, David Threlfall and Rachel Pickup.
Emily Wilson's translaton of Homer's Odyssey was published by Norton in hardback in 2017 and paperback in 2018. This year, 2020, Norton's Critical Edition has been published, more on that here.
