It's a great idea: a survey history of how Homer has been read throughout history, taking in Roman Homer, Christian Homer, Alexander Pope's Homer and Homer in Islam, among others. And Manguel (A History of Reading
) is perfectly cut out for the job, armed as he is with a wealth of stories about scholars and translators through the ages. But most of his anecdotes, though engaging, are disconnected from any central argument. In one Arabic telling of the Trojan War, Agamemnon is made the “secret protagonist,” we are told. But why? Specifics are scarce, while great claims are made—“The epic of Gilgamesh and the stories of the ancient Egyptians stir in our prehistory, but Homer and his poems are the beginning of all our stories”—supported only with more bald assertions. Things pick up in a chapter examining Homer's imagery, but once again, Manguel trails off without taking his ideas anywhere. It's hard to imagine that this latest entry in the Books That Changed the World series will do much to excite further interest in the student or first-time reader of Homer. (Jan.)
