The Odyssey

George Chapman’s famous and timeless translation of Homer’s Odyssey

George Chapman’s translations of Homer—immortalized by Keats’s sonnet—are the most famous in the English language. Swinburne praised their “freshness, strength, and inextinguishable fire,” while the great critic George Saintsbury wrote that “Chapman is far nearer Homer than any modern translator in any modern language.” This volume presents the original text of Chapman’s translation of the Odyssey (1614–1615), making only a small number of changes to punctuation and wording to aid the modern reader. The editor, Allardyce Nicoll, provides an introduction, textual notes, a glossary, and a commentary, and the volume also features a preface by Garry Wills.