The Epic of Gilgamesh by (unknown) tr. Andrew George (1999, ISBN 978-0-140-44919-8)

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a very old story. Copies of it have been found on clay tablets (cuneiform) that are 4000 years old. The copies of the Epic that have been found are incomplete. This book presents the Epic as it is, i.e., using the tablets that have been found and deciphered. Places where the text are incomplete are indicated.

This edition if the Epic is probably more difficult to read, but if you are interested you will get a better understand of what is known about the Epic.

Purchased from Amazon on 2010-12-19 for 9.60$
 

The World Of Odysseus by M.I.Finley (1954, 1979, ISBN 0 1401 3686 X)

This book is an older paperback edition, it is the second edition from Penguin.

This book discusses the world described by the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Conveys a lot of information about the Greek world around the time of Odysseus, around 700 BC.

Purchased at Powell's on 2018-1-10 for 5.95$

 

The Odyssey by Homer Translated with Introduction by Emily Wilson (2018, ISBN 9780393089059)

I enjoyed reading this book. The introduction was very informative and the translation was easy to read.

When I think of the Odyssey I always think of the adventures with the Cyclops or Sirens, but actually a lot of the story is about his home and what happens when he gets home.



Purchased new on 2018-01-10 from Powells for 39.95$

A Companion to the Iliad by Malcolm M. Willcock.obit (1976, ISBN 0-226-89855-5)

Based on the translation by Richmond Lattimore.

What would be really useful would to have this book embedded in the Lattimore translation as notes.

The commentary goes Book by Book (Iliad is divided into 24 books) and somewhat line by line. If you are interested in understand the Iliad better this book provided a lot of information about ancient Greek culture.

Not sure when I obtained this book, probably within the last ten to fifteen years from Powells.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. 1976 Folio Press (BOMC edition.) ISBN 978-0850671063. The story of Jean Valjean, Fantine, Cosette, Marius, Javert and many many more characters. A very complex story of hardship, sadness and happiness.
I found this translation very readable. This is a deluxe printing which I got from the Book Of The Month Club, probably back in the late 1970s.

squirrel seeks chipmunk by David Sedaris. 2010, ISBN 978-0-316-03839-3.
A collection of short stories. All of the characters are animals, playing human roles.
Purchased at Powells 2014-01-14 for $7.98.

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien 1937, ISBN 0-395-17711-1 and 01532. A fantasy novel about a world inhabited by various humanoid creatures called Hobbits, Dwarves, Wizards, Elves, Goblins, Dragons, etc. Very entertaining and very popular. This is the third time I have read this book. Twice I read the paperback shown (01532 Ballantine Books) and once the hardback slipcase edition. The paperback was purchased back in 1971 or 1972 for 95 cents. The hardback was purchased on 2002-1-2 from Borders Books for $35.00.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952, Y3814 Signet)

I think a lot of people read this book when they were in school, but I was never assigned to read it. I bought a copy years ago, but just got around to reading it. I used to think that this was non-fiction for some reason, but of course it is a novel.

The story is about the experience of a black man growing up in the south and then moving to NYC.

Probably purchased at Powell's Books, date unknown, price $2. This book was a discard from a school library.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. 2000, ISBN 0-14-200027-2. This translation is by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
Written by Tolstoy in Russian from 1873 to 1877.
I have three other translations of this book (Magarshack, Carmichael and Edmonds.) I think I read it once when I was in high school and again in college. This book is considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, while that seems a bit much, it can be said that it is a very good novel and well worth the time it takes to read. At over 800 pages it is a challenge for the modern reader. I am glad that I re-read it. The story is about Anna and her dive into destruction, but also about Levin who maybe discovers the meaning of life. The two characters are Russian aristocrats who live in a world of privilege. I think Anna and Levin only meet once during the novel, but they know each other and have many friends in common.  
Purchased from Powell's books 2002-1-22, for $16.

Fallen Angels by Harold Bloom. 2007, 978-0-300-12348-7.
The concept of fallen angel as discussed in this book is different than the usual as given by the above link. Bloom here describes a theory that all humans can be viewed as fallen angels. Interesting book. Purchased September 2012 from Cameron's Books for $5.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. From the book The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. (1969, ISBN 0-670-77076-0.) Shakespeare is fun to read, but hard because the language is so complex. This play is about two pairs of twins that are separated when babies and grow up in different cities. Then as adults they meet but not until after a lot of confusion of idenity, etc.
This a book I purchased a long time ago at PSU bookstore for $16.95.

2012-08-17, Taming of the Shrew 
2012-09-17, Two Gentlemen of Verona

 The Divine Comedy - Paradise by Dante, translated by Dorothy Sayers and Barbara Reynolds. 1962, ISBN 0140441050.
The Divine Comedy - Paradise by Dante translated by Charles Eliot Norton. 1892, PDF from books.google.com.
This is the third and final volume in Dante's poetic description of a journey through the three realms of the afterlife. In this volume Dante enters paradise, the heavens of crystalline spheres that surround the earth. There he meets various Saints who enlighten him concerning the nature of the divine and salvation. Dante's universe was the Ptolemaic system where the Earth was at the center and the Planets (wanderers, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars,  Jupiter, Saturn ) and stars occupied various crystalline spheres that rotated above the Earth.  
The Sayers translation was purchased back in the 1970's for 90 cents, probably from a book store near PSU. The Norton translation was a .mobi file (3ddcn10.mobi) a project Gutenberg book downloaded from the internet. Also, can be found at books.google.com.

The Divine Comedy - Purgatory by Dante Alighieri, tr Dorothy L. Sayers, 1955, ISBN 0140440461. The Divine Comedy - Purgatory tr Charles Eliot Norton, 1891.

The Sayers translation was an actual book. Probably purchased in 1973, for $1.05, maybe at Powells, maybe at a bookstore by PSU. This translation has a long introduction and notes after each canto. Plus there are several Appendix that discuss certain issues in more detail. In the Divine Comedy Dante mentions many people and scholars have tried since it was first made available to determine who these people where. Matilda is one such character who has be speculated about for many years. This translation is again in verse form, that tries to reproduce the Italian Terza rima.

The second translation I read was the Charles Eliot Norton. This is a file I read on my kindle (2ddcn10.mobi), which can be found at websites that have public domain texts. I think this was originally a project Gutenberg text (here.) This translation is older and in prose form. It also has notes to explain the various references.

The Divine Comedy: Hell by Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy L Sayers. 1949, ISBN 0 14 044 006 2.

The Divine Comedy: Inferno By Dante Alighieri, translated by Charles Eliot Norton. 1891.

The Sayers translation was the actual book. I purchased it probably in 1973. This is the third time I have read it. The Norton translation is an ebook (1ddcn10.mobi, it is a Gutenburg text, google it.) I don't remember where I downloaded it from, but it is in the public domain.
I read these two translations canto by canto. Sayers tried to translate into English the poetic form of the original Italian. She discusses it in the introduction. Norton is a prose translation. Both have notes to explain various references, but Sayers are much better (of these two.)

This is a story that takes place in medieval Italy. It is about a lost soul (Dante) searching for the truth. Hell is populated with many famous people, some real and some fictional. Also, there are many people that Dante knew, but who are unknown today.

The Hastur Cycle, edited by Robert M. Price. 1993, ISBN 0-56882-009-7. Subtitle: 13 Tales of Horror Defining Hastur, the King in Yellow, Yuggoth, and the Dread City of Carcosa. This is a collection of short stories that are related because the involve the use of Hastur, Hali, Carcosa, the King in Yellow, etc. The stories are written by Ambrose Bierce, Robert W. Chambers, Karl Edward Wagner, James Blish, Arthur Machen, H. P. Lovecraft, Richard A. Lupoff, Ramsey Campbell, James Wade, August Derleth, and Lin Carter. These stories were written from the late 1800's into the 1980's. In the introduction the editor describes this as a revised edition of Spawn of Cthulhu.This book was purchased on 9-9-2011 at Powell's books for $15.50.

The Maker of Moons by Robert W. Chambers. 1896. This is a collection of short stories written by the American writer R. W. Chambers. The collection was published in the late nineteenth century. Most of the stories are romantic, but some are "weird". R. W. Chambers is considered to be one of the writers that influenced H. P. Lovecraft. This book was a PDF that I read using my Kindle. The type was a bit small, but the scan was clean. The scan was made by Google and obtained from books.google.com.

In The Quarter by Robert W. Chambers. 1894. This is a short novel about a student living in Paris and studying art. It appears to have been Mr. Chambers first novel. I found it easy to read. The version I read was an ebook (pg6893.mobi) file created from a Project Gutenberg text. I don't remember where I found it. I read it on my Kindle. I think you can also find pdf of this file on books.google.com.

The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles with Introduction by Bernard Knox. 2006, ISBN 0-670-03803-2. Last of the three epic poems from the Greeks and Romans. This story, written by Virgil, hundreds of years after Homer tells of events that occur at about the same time as the Odyssey. It is the story of Aeneas and other surviving Trojans who escape Troy and make their way to Italy to found Rome. The story has elements of both Odyssey and Iliad in it, the long wandering journey and the epic battles. Book was purchased at Borders, 11-17-2006 for $32.00.

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles with introduction by Bernard Knox. 1996, ISBN 0-14-026886-3. The story of Odysseus return home to Ithaca (see map) after the end of the Trojan war. Odysseus gets put off course because he offended one of the gods and spends ten years trying to get home. At the same time, during the war and his journey home, Odysseus' son Telemachus grows up into a world of increasing chaos because his mother, Penelope, Odysseus' wife, is being courted by a large band of suitors because it is generally believed that Odysseus had died. At over 400 pages, this is a very large poem, still this translation is easy to read.

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, with Introduction by Bernard Knox. 1990, ISBN 0-14-027536-3. A massive poem (this translation is about 540 pages), considered one of the foundation stones of western culture and literature. Composed 3200 years ago, first written down at about 800 BC. It is an excerpt of the story of the Trojan war, where the Greeks attacked the city of Troy for more than 10 years because Paris had taken Helen from Menelaus. The story told in the poem starts with an argument between Achilles and Agamemnon (brother of Menelaus and primary Greek king.) The poem describes several battles in gruesome detail and ends with the funerals of Patroclus and Hector (son of Trojan king Priam.) Here is a partial list of the characters in the story. The story is mythological, but may be based originally on some similar real events. In this story much of the action is influenced by the Greek gods, for example Zeus, Hera, etc. Two other important characters are Odysseus (main character of Homer's Odyssey) and Ajax. This is the first time I have read this completely. I have collected several translations. This copy was purchased from Borders, probably about ten years ago.