The Penelopiad (Faber Drama) - Softcover

Atwood, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571239498 ISBN 13: 9780571239498

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2007

Synopsis

As portrayed in Homer's Odyssey, Penelope - wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy - has become a symbol of wifely duty and devotion, enduring twenty years of waiting when her husband goes to fight in the Trojan War. As she fends off the attentions of a hundred greedy suitors, travelling minstrels regale her with news of Odysseus' epic adventures around the Mediterranean - slaying monsters and grappling with amorous goddesses. When Odysseus finally comes home, he kills her suitors and then, in an act that served as little more than a footnote in Homer's original story, inexplicably hangs Penelope's twelve maids.

Now, Penelope and her chorus of wronged maids tell their side of the story in a new stage version by Margaret Atwood, adapted from her own wry, witty and wise novel.

The Penelopiad premiered with the Royal Shakespeare Company in association with Canada's National Arts Centre at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in July 2007.

About this title

Review:

"

Half-Dorothy Parker, half-Desperate Housewives.

" (Independent)

"

As potent as a curse.

" (Lucy Hughes Hallett Sunday Times)

"Atwood takes Penelope's part with tremendous verve...she explores the very nature of mythic story-telling." (Mary Beard Guardian)

"Atwood's typical wit and vim on fine display: with the late maids providing a Greek chorus, Penelope swoops across the centuries to pithily slate her cousin Helen of Troy, judge Odysseus and even provide a feminist viewpoint of which Homer could nary have dreamt." (Observer 2008-03-09)

"Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine." (Sam Leith Spectator)

From the Publisher:

3 Hours Unabridged

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0571239498
• ISBN 13: 9780571239498
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112