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An Iliad For Everyone
Mar 2009
Black Ships before Troy - Rosemary Sutcliffe, illus. Alan Lee - Francis Lincoln, 2000
* * * * *
I put this one on my Amazon wish-list because it was a Rosemary Sutcliffe that was new to me. I was expecting an authoritative re-telling of the Homeric epic in Sutcliffe's wonderfully vivid prose - what I hadn't spotted was that it is in fact a "childrens'" book with illustrations by Alan Lee, the well-known Tolkien illustrator and one of the art directors of the Lord of the Rings movies. Fortunately Sutcliffe is far too good a writer to dumb down for children, and Lee's illustrations perfectly complement the story with their rich evocation of the ancient Greek world. The result is a minor classic and the best version of the Iliad that you are ever likely to read.
I am not going to summarise the plot since it is so well known - suffice to that Sutcliffe has done an amazing job of compressing it into novella length without losing any of the major elements. She has also captured the original's poetic flow and use of metaphor and simile (Andromache "drops like a wounded bird" when she sees Hector's body; arrows fall "like a dark and hissing rain"). The complex machinations of the gods, a major part of the Iliad's text, are clearly delineated but kept sensibly in the background, with the focus firmly on the main characters.
Alan Lee's watercolour illustrations are clearly the product of much research and present a world that is full of colour and fascinating detail (some pages can be seen here). I particularly liked his portrayal of the setting and buildings of Troy which match the archaeological remains and which are far more believable than the film of a few years ago. Like Sutcliffe's prose, his pictures manage to convey the drama and horror of battle without being too gruesome. The many pictures of the women in the story point up Sutcliffe's emphasis of them in the text, a change from the original but a very welcome one.
For once I have almost nothing to say in criticism. This is about as perfect a book of its type as one can imagine. It is perhaps still a little too brutal for sensitive children (if they find new Dr Who too much, they may not be able to take this), but for anyone else, of any age, it is strongly recommended.
Black Ships before Troy - Rosemary Sutcliffe, illus. Alan Lee - Francis Lincoln, 2000
* * * * *
I put this one on my Amazon wish-list because it was a Rosemary Sutcliffe that was new to me. I was expecting an authoritative re-telling of the Homeric epic in Sutcliffe's wonderfully vivid prose - what I hadn't spotted was that it is in fact a "childrens'" book with illustrations by Alan Lee, the well-known Tolkien illustrator and one of the art directors of the Lord of the Rings movies. Fortunately Sutcliffe is far too good a writer to dumb down for children, and Lee's illustrations perfectly complement the story with their rich evocation of the ancient Greek world. The result is a minor classic and the best version of the Iliad that you are ever likely to read.
I am not going to summarise the plot since it is so well known - suffice to that Sutcliffe has done an amazing job of compressing it into novella length without losing any of the major elements. She has also captured the original's poetic flow and use of metaphor and simile (Andromache "drops like a wounded bird" when she sees Hector's body; arrows fall "like a dark and hissing rain"). The complex machinations of the gods, a major part of the Iliad's text, are clearly delineated but kept sensibly in the background, with the focus firmly on the main characters.
Alan Lee's watercolour illustrations are clearly the product of much research and present a world that is full of colour and fascinating detail (some pages can be seen here). I particularly liked his portrayal of the setting and buildings of Troy which match the archaeological remains and which are far more believable than the film of a few years ago. Like Sutcliffe's prose, his pictures manage to convey the drama and horror of battle without being too gruesome. The many pictures of the women in the story point up Sutcliffe's emphasis of them in the text, a change from the original but a very welcome one.
For once I have almost nothing to say in criticism. This is about as perfect a book of its type as one can imagine. It is perhaps still a little too brutal for sensitive children (if they find new Dr Who too much, they may not be able to take this), but for anyone else, of any age, it is strongly recommended.