Homer-Haunted

Reviews / Votes

This rich embroidery of the British poetic story, from Chapman's Homer to contemporary writers, is a wonder of imaginative scholarship. The reader feels as excited as Keats, 'silent upon a peak of Darien'. We learn much about the British cultural tradition, but also about the immortal genius of Homer himself. Every page is an illuminating joy. -- A. N. Wilson This is such a brilliantly told story of Homer-obsessives through the ages that, by the end, you're as hooked on Homer as they were. -- Frank Skinner It's rich and beautiful and strange. -- Rory Stewart, The Rest Is Politics I am bowled over by this book, by its range and erudition, its enormous capacity for empathy with a stadium-full of different minds and times and individualities. It is a triumph of understanding and wit, the very best of what criticism and biography and sheer reading can do. It is also written with a deeply receptive frame of mind, constantly championing the neglected and disparaged. To read it is to be enriched. -- Adam Nicolson Full of wit, wisdom and wonder, in this beautifully illustrated book Henry Power brings Homer's stories, their cultural impact and continuing relevance to our society, vividly to life. -- Lachlan Goudie Homer-Haunted is an endlessly generous book, written with a wonderful lightness of touch. Pope, Keats, Thom Gunn, returning World War II soldiers, Alice Oswald and many more meet in its pages through encounters with Homer that open up worlds of poetry and history as they unfold. The result is a joy for all those that love Homer, and a revelation for all those new to these glorious poems. -- Daisy Hay