The Song of Achilles The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles

A Novel

    • 4.6 • 4.7K Ratings
    • $14.99
    • $14.99

Publisher Description

“At once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art by an incredibly talented new novelist….A book I could not put down.”
—Ann Patchett

“Mary Renault lives again!” declares Emma Donoghue, author of Room, referring to The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller’s thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War. 

A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.

GENRE
Romance
RELEASED
2012
March 6
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
416
Pages
PUBLISHER
Ecco
SELLER
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS
SIZE
3.6
MB

Customer Reviews

GuettaFan ,

Amazing read

Having read a majority of Greek classics Including The Iliad , The Odyssey , Thucydides, and Aeneid to name a few and being a huge fan of the character Achilles, I was skeptical at first of this modern re telling of a classic myth. A few chapters in and you find yourself learning who Achilles truly was through the eyes of someone that he loved. You must be accepting of ancient Greek culture and their ways to get past some of miss miller's detailed encounters between Patroclus and Achilles. A beautifully written story, to call it a love story would be like taking its glory away. This is definitely a modern epic.

EkeU1 ,

Response to m925134

I am only writing this to respond to m925134s comment. The question of whether or not Achilles and Patroclus were in a sexual relationship has been debated by many scholars for ages now. Needless to say, there are significant pointers to their homosexual relationship. In the Iliad, Achilles is described as staying up at night and longing for his (Patroclus')'manhood'. Also, in Plato's Symposium, where the issue of eros (sexual love) is discussed, Aristodemus uses Achilles and Patroclus' relationship as an example of erotic love, stating that Achilles dared to risk his death to aid his 'lover'. Whether or not they were in a homosexual relationship is non conclusive. You should however, be slow to dismissing her ideas, as there is a high possibility that there was some eros between them. Keep in mind that in Ancient Greece, homosexuality was widely practiced and the fact that they were cousins does not nullify the possibility of a sexual relationship, as we see in Homer's Odyssey that Alkinoos married his niece, Arete. The conventions of sexual relationships today are definitely VERY DIFFERENT from those of that time.

Reader1029 ,

Song of Achilles

I read the book sample and hoped it would get better after purchasing the full book. No such luck! The pace was slow and I ended up skimming several pages. I would rather have my money back.

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