Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea : Journeys through Ancient Literature

Tracing a twisting journey from Athenian comedy to the career of Cardi B, the renowned Classicist whose Homeric translations set a new gold standard for the art form muses entertainingly on the process of translation itself from antiquity to the present day.

How do we give old words new voices? What must a translator lose - and what might she gain - when she moves between languages, bringing ancient stories to modern life?

Emily Wilson has spent a lifetime wrestling with these questions: here, she invites us to consider the meaning and messages of translators from antiquity to today - and gives a wholly fresh insight into her own work on Homer.

From shifting depictions of Helen of Troy to Cardi B and Athenian comedy, Han Kang's novels and Rome's love of Greek culture, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is a playful and fascinating voyage into the promise, possibility and constant renewal of classical literature.

MEDIA REVIEWS

A masterclass in translation ... fascinating - Blake Morrison, Guardian

An engaging investigation into the translator's art ... incisive - Chris Power, Observer

Emily Wilson's brilliant reconsiderations of the ancient world - through the figure of Helen of Troy, the remaking of the Iliad by Christopher Logue, the use of comedy to grapple with dark matters, even slavery, and much besides - makes this an enthralling and profoundly relevant book - Salman Rushdie

Wilson is unquestionably quite cool, and not just by the supposedly buttoned-up standards of her discipline - Financial Times

Wilson's excitement for her subject is irrepressibly moving . . . even when Wilson issues a barbed critique, she is making room - for more engagement, more imagination, more complexity - Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

Fascinating ... Wilson's book is a timely reminder that that selection of words and phrases is key to the richness of human interaction and explaining what we really mean - The Critic

This stimulating collection has a way of opening subjects up rather than closing them down ... Wilson does an impressive job of transfusing a classical scholar's knowledge into the liveliness and uncondescending intelligence of good critical writing - TLS

Wilson may be the world's most famous living classicist. Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea shows off her scholarly range and her accessible, authoritative, opinionated voice - New York Times Book Review

Excellent - Rod Liddle, Times Radio