About the book
In The Odyssey, Penelope - daughter of King Icarius of Sparta, and the
cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy - is portrayed as the
quintessential faithful wife. Atwood's dazzling retelling of the old
myth is as haunting as it is wise and compassionate, as disturbing as
it is entertaining. With incomparable wit and verve, she gives the
story of Penelope new life and reality.
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About the author
Nominated for the first ever Man Booker International Prize
representing the best writers in contemporary fiction, MARGARET ATWOOD
is the author of more than 35 internationally acclaimed works of
fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her numerous awards include the
Governor General's Award for The Handmaid's Tale, and The Giller Prize
and Italian Premio Mondale for Alias Grace. The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's
Eye, Alias Grace, and Oryx and Crake were all shortlisted for the Man
Booker Prize, which she won with The Blind Assassin. She is a Fellow
of the Royal Society of Canada, and has been awarded the Norwegian
Order of Literary Merit and the French Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts
et des Lettres; she is a Foreign Honorary Member for Literature of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Toronto.
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Read an excerpt
From Margaret Atwood's Introduction to The Penelopiad:
Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material
was originally oral, and also local - a myth would be told one way in
one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material
other than The Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's
parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumours
circulating about her.
I've chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to her
twelve hanged maids. The Maids form a chanting and singing Chorus
which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any
close reading of The Odyssey: what led to the hanging of the maids,
and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in The Odyssey
doesn't hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I've always
been haunted by the hanged maids; and, in The Penelopiad, so is
Penelope herself.
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