[Homer] Pope, Alexander.

The Iliad and Odyssey. With notes and Introduction by the Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley, M.A. F.S.A.

London, Frederick Warne and Co., 1888. 14 cm x 20 cm. 850 pages with illustrations throughout. Original, decorative Hardcover. Very good and firm condition with signs of external wear such as a sunned spine. Some foxing to half-title and first few pages as well as the edges but the majority of the text in clean and excellent condition.

Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer, and he is also famous for his use of the heroic couplet. He is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare.
Pope had been fascinated by Homer since childhood. In 1713, he announced his plans to publish a translation of the Iliad. The work would be available by subscription, with one volume appearing every year over the course of six years. Pope secured a revolutionary deal with the publisher Bernard Lintot, which brought him two hundred guineas (£210) a volume, equivalent to about £28,700 in 2017, a vast sum at the time.
His translation of the Iliad appeared between 1715 and 1720. It was acclaimed by Samuel Johnson as “a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal” (although the classical scholar Richard Bentley wrote: “It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer.”).
Encouraged by the success of the Iliad, Pope translated the Odyssey. The translation appeared in 1726, but this time, confronted with the arduousness of the task, he enlisted the help of William Broome and Elijah Fenton. Pope attempted to conceal the extent of the collaboration (he himself translated only twelve books, Broome eight and Fenton four), but the secret leaked out. It did some damage to Pope’s reputation for a time, but not to his profits. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: Catalogue Greek History & Philosophy · Homer · Iliad · The Odyssey
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 44481AB

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