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An Iliad

alessandro baricco ann goldstein

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A bold reimagining of our civilization's greatest tale of war, by the author of the acclaimed best seller Silk.

Alessandro Baricco re-creates the siege of Troy through the voices of twenty-one Homeric characters in the narrative idiom of our modern imagination. Sacrificing none of Homer's panoramic scope, Baricco forgoes Homeric detachment and admits us to realms of subjective experience his predecessor never explored. From the return of Chryseis to the burial of Hector, we see through human eyes and feel with human hearts the unforgettable events first recounted almost three thousand years ago ”events arranged not by the whims of the gods in this instance but by the dictates of human nature. With Andromache, Patroclus, Priam, and the rest, we are privy to the ghastly confusion of battle, the clamor of princely councils, the intimacies of the bedchamber”until finally only a blind poet is left to recount, secondhand, the awful fall of Ilium.

Imbuing the stuff of legend with a startling new relevancy and humanity, Baricco gives us The Iliad as we have never known it. His transformative achievement is certain to delight and fascinate all readers of Homer's indispensable classic.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1,2004

This edition

Format
176 pages, Hardcover
Published
August 1, 2006 by Knopf
ISBN
9780307263551
ASIN
030726355X
Language
English

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About the author

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alessandro baricco

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Alessandro Baricco is an Italian writer, born at Torino in 1958. He's the author of several works, including the novels Lands of Glass (Selezione Campiello Award and Prix Médicis Étranger), Ocean Sea (Viareggio Prize), Silk, City, Emmaus or Mr. Gwyn, among others.

He is also the author of the majestic rewrite of Homer's Iliad, the theatrical monologue Novecento, the essays Next: On Globalization and the World to Come or The Game.

Baricco hosted the book program "Pickwick" for Rai Tre, which, according to Claudio Paglieri, "invited Italians to rediscover the pleasure of reading." In 1994, he founded a school of "writing techniques" in Turin called Holden (as a tribute to Salinger), which, under his direction, has been a resounding success. Since the publication of Silk, which has become a long-standing bestseller both in Italy and internationally, Baricco has established himself as one of the great Italian writers of the new generations.

He was awarded the Fondazione Il Campiello Prize in 2020 and the Penna d'Oro Prize in 2022 for his body of work.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Compromisations
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Ho letto Iliade e Odissea in svariate salse. Non credo di aver mai fatto così fatica a portare a termine questo libro. Pesantissimo e poco scorrevole in alcuni punti. A tratti moderno e a tratti scritto un un stile molto vecchio e sconnesso.
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Shiharu
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Gran adaptación. Como introducción al estudio de la original me parece un esfuerzo válido de Baricco para leerla de una forma ágil y moderna. Con supresiones, pero debidamente justificadas, es un gran libro para que, sobre todo los jóvenes, conozcan esta magna obra de la literatura universal.
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LadyCherise
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Osadía deliciosamente lograda.
Tarantino querría hacerla película si Tarantino leyera a Homero, claro.
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Alexis9
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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This year I would like to reread the Iliad and then move on to a couple or so of the recent retellings, such as those by Madeline Miller and Pat Barker. But I have also engaged in this  group for polyglots  to read a book a month in Italian. As Baricco’s style suits me well I proceeded with this after reading his Novecento. Un monologo. I was in a way jumping ahead since my plan was to read Homer first.

Baricco has indeed retold the story. His original aim (he has also deviated from first plans) was to organize a public reading of Homer’s original but given the impracticability since it would have required about 40 hours of attention from a modern and impatient audience. Instead, he has distilled the original taking out repetitions, the apparitions of the gods, and instead of producing summaries, has taken some sections and compressed them. The result is very beautiful and flowing.

In his Afterword Baricco gives us his conclusions after spending a full year writing this adaptation.

Although it may seem an oxymoron, he insists that this is first and foremost a story of war, which at the time of his writing it in 2004, seemed very pertinent to the violent times. The time I am reading it is even more pertinent with Ukraine in our minds now. Baricco, somewhat begrudgingly, reminds us that this poem that extols war - it is a monument dedicated to it. This realisation has made him want to delve deeper into what is behind humanity’s fascination with war.

Parallely he has been struck by how, in spite of this being (as usual) a tale told by the winners, there is a great deal of compassion expressed for many of the defeated heroes. He notices that this more emotive awareness often stems from a female point of view and reminds us (and I look forward to rereading it) that chapter VI in the Iliad is a female chapter – providing emotional symmetry to the tale.

His second, and fascinating point, is the role that words, talking, telling and retelling, play in Homer’s work. As if all the characters were Scheherazades, stealing time from death, thanks to the power of narration. This is a tale that delays destruction.

And finally, Baricco, issues a call to humanity – he thinks our Pacifism is founded on the wrong basis. He believes that the way out of violence is not to demonize war but to seek Beauty, the all-redeeming Beauty, in a procedure that would require facing Death differently. Very utopian, very appealing, and a very tall endeavour. I am afraid I am not such an optimist regarding our human nature.

Baricco is a Platonist then.
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Japania
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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3.5⭐️ Llegit després de La cançó d’Aquiles de Madeline per contrastar un mica: aquest llibre és un recull de renglons originals de la Ilíada (alterats en perspectiva ja que el narrador és en primera persona de diferents personatges) que cerquen “l’esquelet” - com diu l’autor- dels últims dos anys (aprox) de la guerra. El que acostuma a ser una lectura tediosa ha resultat estar fàcil de llegir, evidentment manca la fantasia que Madeline atribueix a la seva magnífica obra però d’això es tracta. Moltíssimes coincidencies amb la història que relata Madeline; aquesta no defineix explícitament la relació d’Aquiles i Patrocle, et dona petites informacions que et deixin interpretar i això m’ha agradat (perquè segueix sent innegable el seu amor i admiració mutuus). Una reflexió final molt molt bona. Escriu molt maco alguns dels versos. M’encantaria llegir més, més anys de la Ilíada.
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Ransk
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Non amo Baricco, ho provato e riprovato a leggere i suoi romanzi ma non fanno proprio per me.
Apprezzo però questa riscrittura dell’Iliade in modo corale.
Nonostante sia scritta in prosa ne viene rispettato il
Tono lirico, anche se non ho apprezzato fino in fondo la scelta a monte di eliminare la presenza degli dei, e
Ricondurre la guerra alla sola dimensione umana.
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fandom_cos
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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I had to read this book for my Universal Literature class. I was very hesitant at first because it is a very old classic and I feared that even in an easier version it would be confusing and difficult to read. I am very glad that was not the case. The Illiad follows the story of the Trojan war where greeks and spartans fought. Originally it was caused by the rapture of Menelao´s wife Helena by Paris. But the war had been going on for several years and this book narrates the last stretch of it.
The fact that this is an actual part of history is what made it so interesting for me. I have been hearing all my life about these different greek personalities but I never got the chance to actually know about them until now. They were all great characters, especially Aquiles and Hector. The way they fough at the end really made me love the story.
If you are interested in this area of history or if you are interested in greek things in general I would recommend this book and please don´t be intimidated by the original work.
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TomoPyon
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Baricco riscrive l'Iliade in poco più di 150 pagine.
Se ne sentiva il bisogno? No, Omero tutta la vita. Il libro si rivela un'arida versione ridotta e volta in prosa, però le aggiunte non mi sono dispiaciute affatto e ho trovato la riflessione finale sul riscatto pacifista dell'epica greca molto interessante.
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