Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #369491 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Amazon.com Review
Homer's mighty epic poem, The Iliad, is the earliest written literature of Western civilization. Adele Geras, best known for her trilogy based on Sleeping Beauty, takes on the seemingly impertinent task of retelling the siege of Troy as a young adult novel, but manages to carry it off without trivializing the original. The great battles of the bronze-clad warriors and the clashes between Achilles and Hector and Odysseus are seen at a distance from the walls of the city, where the Trojan townsfolk gather to sit each day and cheer the action like spectators at some archaic football game.

The passion of Helen and Paris, Hector's farewell to his ill-fated infant son, and other familiar domestic scenes are seen from a closer perspective, through the eyes of the four teenage protagonists. Marpessa is Helen's young servant, and her sister Xanthe is nursemaid to Hector's baby son, while Iason, who is secretly beloved by their friend Polyxena, tends the horses and yearns for Xanthe, who has a crush on Alastor, who has impregnated Marpessa. These complicated, interlocking infatuations and love affairs work themselves out against a background of siege and bloodshed watched over by the gods. Artemis, Mars, Poseidon, and Pallas Athene appear in visions to reveal their plans to the characters (and to us), but their words blow away like mist as soon as they are gone. Meanwhile, the bawdy gossip of three old serving maids in the kitchen emulates a Greek chorus. The story winds to its inevitable destination with the emergence of the Greeks from the wooden horse and the bloody sack of the city--a suitably violent end to an ancient and violent tale. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

From Publishers Weekly
"With exceptional grace and energy, Geras recreates the saga of the Trojan War by delving into the hearts and minds of the women of Troy," wrote PW in our Best Books citation. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-The Trojan War was the original miniseries; trying to cram it into one volume is an epic task. Homer could count on his audience's familiarity with the story. Roger Lancelyn Green, in The Tale of Troy (Puffin, 1995), began deep into the prewar past and narrated chronologically. Geras, like Homer, sets her novel in the last months of the 10-year conflict. She incorporates the back story by an ingenious (but artificial) means: describing tapestries, recounting gossips' chatter or the revelations of visiting gods. (The gods appear and speak, but the mortals are skeptical or forgetful.) There's still a lot to keep straight, and readers will struggle. It doesn't help that the two invented sister characters at the center of the novel are thin, one-dimensional figures: their love for the same man (an equally undeveloped character) is meant to be the focus, but remains at the romance-novel level. The diction ranges from British to slang ("tits," "screw," and "Hera hangs around with Agamemnon"); the absence of specific terms (like amphora or chiton) sacrifices atmosphere for easier reading. The inherent drama of Troy is replaced by the simpler love conflict and its attendant woes (like an unplanned pregnancy). Sometimes Geras's writing is inspired, but Clemence McLaren's Inside the Walls of Troy (Atheneum, 1996) and Paul Fleischman's Dateline: Troy (Candlewick, 1996) are still much better bets.
Patricia Lothrop-Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

History as a domestic tragedy
Movies about Troy concentrate on matters as seen from the perspective of the powerful .Thus the recent Brad Pitt movie Troy spent most of its time dealing with the trials and tribulations of such personages as Achilles and Psris .Likewise the 1950's epic Helen of Troy and even such modest peplum as Achilles focus on the movers and shakers.
Homer -who kickstarted the whole shebang ,let's not forget,-paid a lot of attention to the Gods and their role in proceedings .

Adele Geras brings in the Gods when she retells the ancient tale .They appear to various figures in the novel .Ares ,God of War is shown as a sleek black clad warrior .Aphrodite meanders in and out of proceedings and there is a particularly spectacular intervention by Poseidon.For the most part however the writer focuses on relatively humble and less powerful people especially women .The main protagonists are Xanthe and her sister Marpessa ,servants in King Priam's palace .The war is into its tenth year when the novel opens .Food is short and tempers shorter .Marpessa is a visionary ,prone to seeing the Gods and talking with them.Xanthe is a more grounded figure ,a practical woman and nursemaid to the infant son of Prince Hector and his wife Andromache.Both sisters fall in love with the same young man -a well connected individual names Alastor whose snobbish mother will not entrtain the notion of his marrying into any circle but the aristocracy.Xanthe meanwhile is beloved of Iason ,a groom in the royal stables .in trur Greek tragedy style we even have a Chorus -a trio of elederly kitchen gossips casting their own light on proceedings .

The rich and famous are not ignored but are treated as having feet of clay -Paris is paunchy and dissipated,Achilles a petulant gay thug and the royal household tired ,old and at the end of their tether .This is the war seen as domestic tragedy.through the eyes of the young whose hopes are frustrated because of the war

The style is penny plain but effective and the book ends on a note of hope both for the survivors in the ruins of the city and for tjhose bound for Greece .In reminding us that the price of war is often heaviest for non -commabatants the book performs a service but if you want a story about the conduct and battles of the war and the doings of the high and mighty then this is not for you.Try David Gemmell's trilogy instead

Troy From A New Perspective
This book is a beautiful, poignant retelling of one of the most ancient and enduring stories of all time. The tragic events that have haunted and thrilled us for generations are brought brilliantly to life under the skilled hand of Adèle Geras, and made fresh by an interesting new perspective. The story is romantic and utterly exquisite, the language poetic and lovely but easy to understand.

The new, non-Iliad characters in the novel, Marpessa, Xanthe, Iason, Alastor, and Polyxena, are all believable and very human. For the most part they are servants, and all of them are lower in class then the heroic, royal characters that we usually associate with Troy. This puts them in a prime position to witness important events and interact with all of the tragedy's important characters without interfering with the normal flow of events.

The traditional characters, both the gods and the humans, are for once in the background, but they are still highly important and their personalities are explored. Often, from the perspectives of our main characters, we see wholly new sides of the characters of the Iliad, which adds interest and innovation to the novel.

As for the novel itself, it is nicely balanced and layered. The story takes place during the war, but it is not essentially about the war, but rather about the experiences of the young people who are living in Troy during the war. For the story of the war, read the Iliad. You are likely to be disappointed if you pick up this novel expecting multiple battle descriptions and gory details. Instead, expect a novel about the nature of the human soul, and how both love and war can warp and change it.

Failboat!
I was a sophomore in high school, and it was the summer, and the summary made for a promising read. However, having just taken a Latin class where we concentrated study on the Trojan War that year, there were (and still are) no words for how disappointing, disturbed, and sorry that book was. I haven't picked it up since then, but I have no intention of selling it, because it's just not worth wasting the money.
I had so many expectations for this story. I had actually expected it to be a refreshing view on a familiar story. No dice. Whatever this was, it wasn't what I expected it to be. It was actually far from it. I didn't buy that book to read about two teenage girls pining over the poor boy who was only in the war for... what was it? Five minutes? It made the drama in my circle of friends look like no big deal.
I'm going to need mind bleach to forget this book.