From the Odyssey to a toga-clad detective, Natalie Haynes picks her favourite fiction about classical antiquity OTHER THAN MADELINE MILLER AND MARY RENAULT, WHAT LITERATURE CAN I READ THAT EXPLORES THE CLASSICAL SETTING OF ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME? Livvy Muir, 18, hoping to study comparative literature with ancient Greek at University College London NATALIE HAYNES, WRITER, BROADCASTER AND CLASSICIST: For ancient Greece, I’d recommend Margaret Atwood’s _The Penelopiad_. And if you haven’t already read _The Odyssey_, treat yourself to Emily Wilson’s terrific new translation. The introduction alone will probably get you through your first-year exams. Daniel Mendelsohn’s _An Odyssey_ is a gorgeous memoir about his late father (who decided, aged 81, to join the undergraduate course Mendelsohn taught on Homer at New York’s Bard College). It is learned, funny and will make your heart hurt. And Zachary Mason’s _The Lost Books of the Odyssey_ is a brilliant Borgesian exploration of the epic poem, if you can’t get enough of the flawed Greek hero. Continue reading...
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