Publisher's Synopsis
Reading Homer in Times of War, Plague and Routine Adversity is not only a memoir about reading and teaching one of the very greatest works of World Literature. It is also a tribute to the singers of songs, classical scholars, translators and poets who have made this splendid work of art available to millions of enchanted listeners and readers for thousands of years. In reflecting on her own experience of reading the bard, Corti underscores the ways in which the meaning of the Homeric epics is enriched with every subsequent reading, as the personal, familial, communal and cosmic events experienced by the reader augment her understanding of the texts. In short, this memoir celebrates the particular perceptions and illuminations which the reading of these universally revered poems has brought to one person's life.
