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The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce Lockhart
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
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The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters
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Summary
Longlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (now the Bailie Gifford)
‘A thrilling and complex book, enlarges our view of Homer … There’s something that hits the mark on every page’ Claire Tomalin, Books of the Year, New Statesman
Where does Homer come from? And why does Homer matter? His epic poems of war and suffering can still speak to us of the role of destiny in life, of cruelty, of humanity and its frailty, but why they do is a mystery. How can we be so intimate with something so distant?
‘The Mighty Dead’ is a magical journey of discovery across wide stretches of the past, sewn together by some of the oldest stories we have – the great ancient poems of Homer and their metaphors of life and trouble. In this provocative and enthralling book, Adam Nicolson explains why Homer still matters and how these vital, epic verses – with their focus on the eternal questions about the individual versus the community, honour and service, love and war – tell us how we became who we are.
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Critic reviews
‘A thrilling and complex book, enlarges our view of Homer… there's something that hits the mark on every page’ Claire Tomalin, Books of the Year, New Statesman
‘Bursting with enthusiasm, erudition and eccentricity: a travelogue, a memoir, a work of literary criticism and, at bottom, an archaeology of the western imagination. Completely thrilling’ Susan Hill, Books of the Year, Spectator
‘Only the hardiest immune systems will be able to resist his unselfconscious adoration of the poet. Anyone who feels they never 'got' Homer should read this book’ Books of the Year, Sunday Times
‘Astounding. Scholarly, but so up-close and personal that you feel it in the guts… it transcends genre…you come away exhilarated’ Sofka Zinovieff, Books of the Year, Spectator
‘A brilliant, passionate, world-wandering love letter to Homer … far more inspirational than any dry academic exegesis. If the only real test of any book about Homer is that it should make you want to go back to Homer, then ‘The Mighty Dead’ passes in a blaze of glory’ Sunday Times
‘A hosanna to Homeric wandering and wanderlust … breathes new life into an ancient adventure’ Observer
‘A thrillingly energised book that travels to the real-life locations of the action … it transmits a whole worldview at once decipherable and dramatically strange … To read Homer is to be struck by what Nicolson calls ‘time-vertigo’ – and this book is one that holds your hand and encourages you to peer over the edge’ Spectator
‘As gripping as a thriller and as delicately constructed as a sonnet … an astonishing tour de force that reveals Homer to be at once as ancient as papyrus and as modern as MTV … in dealing with the body-thudding side of epic Nicolson proves to be in his element’ Telegraph
‘Erudite, far-ranging in time and space, and provocative… [his] enthusiasm is enriching and his examination of the character of the two epics acute and fascinating. Homer matters because he can stimulate books such as this’ Literary Review
What listeners say about The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Si + Neetz
- 05-01-23
a breath taking look back in time
before the collapse of the mycenean civilisation there were thousand of years of myths floating around the eastern med
nearly three thousand years ago these were written down.
if you are really into either homer, or are interested in understanding prehistory and bronze age man buy this book.
i was blown away, because poetry - homer - is the foundation of my worldview, and i havent come across any similar worldviews until i read this - homer is key to understanding who we are, if you want to know why buy this book
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- John Horncastle
- 08-01-18
Wonderful book
This is a fascinating book. The author's love shines through as he follows the threads of the Odyssey and the Iliad back to the pre-Classical world. The scholarship and insight brings context which will enrich the reading of Homer or indeed exploring the Bronze Age. The narrator reads with great verve.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mark H
- 11-10-18
Briiliant Presentation occasionally off piste
Well worth listening too, more Odyssey than Illiad but covers both well and some good insight
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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- Richard Bowden
- 03-06-15
Often thought provoking, occasionally cringeworthy
What did you like best about The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters? What did you like least?
It's an important literary subject and the writer does a decent job in parts of opening up the text. The writer does a good job of conveying the world in which he believes the Iliad and Odyssey were written.
Would you recommend The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters to your friends? Why or why not?
If someone has a deep interest in Homer and Ancient Greece then yes I would recommend it. However the reader must understand that this book for large parts in discomfortingly pretentious. The writer seems obsessed with linking himself to the Homeric Heroes through his actions and this at times makes the writer look a little foolish. If you can get past these eye rolling sections the book is a very good read.
What about Dugald Bruce Lockhart’s performance did you like?
The spoken performance is fine, it fits very well with the tone of the book.
Could you see The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?
Of course not, unless it was on BBC4.
Any additional comments?
It's a bit of a shame that most of the analysis of the Odyssey is squashed into the last real chapter of the book.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Steven
- 27-08-16
Fascinating book, woeful narration
Adam Nicolson is, by his own admission, a latecomer to appreciating Homer and in this book he writes with characteristic thoughtfulness and insight about how his awakening to the Iliad and the Odyssey have contributed to his understanding of himself and of the meaning of human life. It is a persuasive and at times provocative case, stripped of sentimentalism and illuminated with moments of harrowing autobiography. His language is as visceral and vibrant as the poems themselves. As an audiobook, however, it is let down by the narration which I found rather hurried and breathless. Worst of all was Dugald Bruce Lockhart's pronunciation and misplaced stresses of proper nouns, not only of the classical characters and places, but more generally. To pronounce Titian 'tight-ee-an' for example is just nonsense and the less said about his attempt at Srebrenica the better! The 9hrs were littered with such stumblings, enough to become an annoying distraction from what is a work of compelling erudition.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- LondonLass
- 08-04-19
Interesting ideas, buried in a lot of space filling verbiage
To many words, not enough substance. Poor Homer would be turning in his grave, if he existed...
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