Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Peggy MacPhie

The interest in Homer's "The Iliad" is increasing this year with the film "Troy" due in theatres soon.

Adele Geras' "Troy" isn't the basis for this film, but is instead a YA adaptation of Homer's original work. All of the elements that made "The Iliad" great are there -- the love affair between Paris and Helen that sparked the war to begin with, the epic battle between Hector and Achilles, and the infamous Trojan horse. Geras tells the story from the perspective of all the major players, mortal and immortal, and also introduces several characters of her own.

At the forefront of the story are the sisters Marpessa, a handmaiden of Helen of Troy, and Xanthe, servant to Hector's wife Andromache, and the love the two girls feel for the handsome Alastor, a Trojan soldier who lives under his dragon-like mother's son.

If you know the original story then you'll know the outcome in the city of Troy, but nonetheless your breath will be taken away by Geras' characterizations and depictions of life in Troy.

Anyone who had difficulty reading the poem in it's many translations might want to try reading this first, as it may help you follow Homer's "The Iliad."