Product Description

The siege of Troy has lasted almost ten years. Inside the walled city, food is scarce and death is common. From the heights of Mount Olympus, the Gods keep watch. But Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, is bored with the endless, dreary war. Aided by Eros's bow, the goddess sends two sisters down a bloody path to an awful truth: In the fury of war, love strikes the deadliest blows.
Heralded by fans and critics alike, Adèle Geras breathes personality, heartbreak, and humor into this classic story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103293 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780152045708
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

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

The Iliad--in English
The Iliad is enjoyable as a great work of ancient literature, but oft-neglected due to the fact that it's written in a distant and often difficult style. This book gives us a good insight into how people would have felt and seen things.

The war between Greece and Troy has been lasting years, and Troy is beginning to crumble under relentless pressure to win back the beautiful Helen.

The characters we know already, Paris and Helen and Hector and so forth, are shown from the viewpoints of servant girls, who have a tangle of loves and infatuations worthy of a high school soap. Marpessa is Helen's servant, and her sister Xanthe is Hector's son's nurse. Their anguishes and loves spin their courses as Troy collapses ever further, a situation including the famed wooden horse.

The gods appear, as they do in myth and legend, but only in brief spurts -- the humans are the ones we wish to see here. And it is these unknowns, the invented people that interest us for anyone with a passing knowledge of the Iliad will know the conclusion for Troy, for Paris, for Helen. But we don't know what will happen to Marpessa and Xanthe, and thus we care a great deal.

Marpessa and Xanthe are interesting characters, but I often felt that the focus shifted a little too far off them. That, and I got bored easily by the kitchen gossip — it was entertaining for a bit but got a little older later on. I also tended to get a little lost in the tangle of who-loves-who, where A loved B who is secretly in love with C, who got A pregnant.

One inevitable thing is that the writing style will be a bit off when one adapts a novel from an ancient poem. Often it seemed to sag or to lose something that could have made a scene sparkle. It was fairly sprightly throughout most of the book, but I felt that it was a bit "off" when the major events of the legend came together at the finale.

Overall, an enjoyable adaptation with a few awkward spots, but a nice read.

Troy: Giving Teenagers a Bad Name
Contrary to popular belief, most people buy books about Troy to read (no kidding!) about Troy! Never would have guessed, would you?

This book (a bestseller ENTITLED Troy), however, is determined to add something more:

TEENAGERS AND THEIR SORDID LOVE LIVES!

While the battle rages outside Troy's walls, the two protagonists, sisters Marpessa and Xanthe, obsess, cry, yell, and catfight over a boy (beautiful Alastor who spent all of five seconds in battle before getting wounded)!

Instead of a fierce ten-year battleground, the city of Troy becomes an attractive backdrop for a teenage soap opera. And instead of the epic this tale should have been, readers are left with girl fights, premarital sex, and (of course) unwanted pregnancies!

Might as well watch it on TV!

The Best of Greek Mythology
Adele Geras has beautifully combined the mortal and immortal world in this historic and mythological novel. I have read many Greek mythology novels but nothing compares to this wonderfully written book. There wasn't any part of the novel that didn't appeal to me. Adele has done a fabulous job binding life, love, war, and death. It is one of the best books written of ALL TIMES. I recommend it to anyone interested in MYTHOLOGY. You just won't be able to put the book down. I agree that although TROY was a battle (Trojan War) the book did not include much of it, until the very end. But from a reader's point of view, I have to say the novel is very well balanced. Please, read "TROY". I liked it so much that I rented the "TROY" movie - the movie and the book are quiet different. WHO knew.....that a war could happen because of a beautiful girl?