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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Listings for Author:  

Homer

  

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Homer : The Iliad

'Growing up in extreme poverty in East London, Crooks spent 2d. on a secondhand "Iliad" and was dazzled: "What a revelation it was to me. Pictures of romance and beauty I had never dreamed of suddenly opened up before my eyes. I was transported from the East End to an enchanted land. It was a rare luxury for a working lad like me just home from work to find myself suddenly among the heroes and nymphs of ancient Greece".'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Will Crooks      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Iliad

In Lincoln, I now took up the Memorabilia of Xenophon, ran through the odes of Anacreon, and then commenced the Iliad. I worked hard at Greek.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Cooper      Print: Book

  

Homer : unknown

We [Barrett and Hugh Stuart Boyd] talked comparatively about Homer, Aeschylus & Shakespeare: and positively about Aeschylus's Prometheus ? Praises of the speech in the Medea.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett      Print: Book

  

Homer : 

Went into the library to try to rationalize my mind about the deathwatch, - by reading the Cyclopaedia. Feel very unwell today, & nervous. Read the mysteries of Udolpho ? by way of quieting my imagination? & heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon - & read some of Victor Hugo?s & Lamartine?s poetry ? his last song of Childe Harold. Miss Steers kindly sent a packet of French poetry to Mr. Boyd?s for me yesterday. Le dernier chant wants the Byronic character (- an inevitable want for a French composition ? ) and is not quite equal even to Lamartine.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

"[in Aug. 1787 Dorothy Wordsworth] reported that 'I am at present [reading] the Iliad' ... "

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Dorothy Wordsworth      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Iliad

I procured a Greek grammar, and soon made considerable progress. I first read the New Testament almost throughout; then the Iliad of Homer, not omitting a line nor leaving a word obscure; then part of the Odyssey, which was recalled before I could finish it.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lutton      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Odyssey

I procured a Greek grammar, and soon made considerable progress. I first read the New Testament almost throughout; then the Iliad of Homer, not omitting a line nor leaving a word obscure; then part of the Odyssey, which was recalled before I could finish it.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lutton      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

Letter H. 114. Postmark 15 May 1863 Referring to a picture of Helen of Troy: ?She is the sweetest character in all Homer ? and the true heroine ? even of the Odyssey ? (not to speak of the second Part of Faust).

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

Letter H. 114. Postmark 15 May 1863 Referring to a picture of Helen of Troy: ?She is the sweetest character in all Homer ? and the true heroine ? even of the Odyssey ? (not to speak of the second Part of Faust).

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Odyssey

In my learning I do Xenophon every day and twice a week the Odyssey, in which I am classed with Wilberforce.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay      Print: Book

  

Homer : 

'At the same time as she was entertaining herself with a variety of novels, [Frances] Burney was putting herself through an energetic course of solid reading, including Homer (in Pope's translation) and various histories of the ancient and modern world, as well as the works of major modern poets.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'In her teens [Frances] Burney was tackling on her own such works as Plutarch's "Lives" (in translation), Pope's "Iliad", and ... all the works of Pope, including the Letters; Hume's "History of England"; Hooke's "Roman History"; and Conyers Middleton's "Life of Cicero" ... She also ... studied music theory in Diderot's treatise ...'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Iliad

'Mary Paley Marshall ... one of Newnham's first students, recalls her father in the 1860s reading aloud "The Arabian Nights", "Gulliver's Travels", the "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Shakespeare, and, above all, Scott's novels ...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Paley      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Odyssey

'Mary Paley Marshall ... one of Newnham's first students, recalls her father in the 1860s reading aloud "The Arabian Nights", "Gulliver's Travels", the "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Shakespeare, and, above all, Scott's novels ...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Paley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'A.E. Coppard, a laundrywoman's son who grew up in dire poverty, left school at nine, ascended the ranks of clerkdom and became (at age forty) a professional author. At fourteen he was still enjoying "Deadeye Dick", by twenty he was reading Henry James...He secured a literary education at the Brighton Public Library, and as a professional runner he used prize money to buy Hardy's poems, Shakespeare, Mackail's translation of "The Odyssey", and William Morris's "The Earthly Paradise". In an undemanding job... he read on company time, though there was a row when his supervisor found "Jude the Obscure" on his desk'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Edgar Coppard      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'In reading the "Odyssey" last night among many curious passages these two lines I think applicable to the present times, Viz, "why cease ye then ye wreath of Heaven to stay; be humbled all and Lead ye great the way".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Turner      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'In the even read 2 books of Homer's "Odyssey", translated by Pope.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Turner      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'Came home about 8.10. Read part of Homer's "Odyssey".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Turner      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'After supper read the 13th book of Homer's "Odyssey", wherein I think the soliloquy which Ulysses makes when he finds the Phaeacians have, in his sleep, left him on shore with all his treasure, and on his native shore of Ithaca (though not known to him), contains a very good lesson of morality.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Turner      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'At home all day... In reading Homer's "Odyssey", I think the character which Menelaus gives Telemachus of Ulysses, when he is a-speaking of his war-like virtues in the 4th book, is very good.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Turner      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'In the even read part of Homer's "Odyssey", translated by Alexander Pope, which I like very well, the language being vastly good and the turn of thought and expression beautiful.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Turner      Print: Book

  

Homer : [hymn to Aphrodite]

'Gruppe read us a translation of one of the Homeric Hymns - Aphrodite - which is really beautiful. It is a sort of Gegenstuck to "Der Gott und die Bayadere". He has struck out 150 lines which he believes to be interpolated and the connection of the poem appears perfect'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: [Professor] Gruppe      Manuscript: Unknown

  

Homer : Iliad

?About this time I was delighted by the acquisition of two books, the existence of which, until then, had been unknown to me. One was the second volume of Homer?s "Iliad", translated by Alexander Pope, with notes by Madame Dacier; and the other was a small volume of miscellaneous poems, by John Milton. Homer I read with an absorbed attention which soon enabled me to commit nearly every line to memory.?

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Bamford      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

?Whilst in Mr W?s employ, I combined my poetic readings at all leisure moments. I procured and read speedily a complete "Iliad" in English. Some of Shakespeare?s works having fallen in my way, I read them with avidity, as I did almost every other book, and though deeply interested by his historical characters and passages, I never either then or since relished his blank verse, or that of any other poet.?

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Bamford      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'By courtesy of a friend I had the loan of Mr. Pope's poetical works together with his translations of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey". I also read Mr. Hervey's "Theron and Aspasia", but with no great pleasure, because of its chiefly dwelling upon controverted points of theology. I was induced to read it by a sense of what was due to the request of a valued friend. As to Mr. Pope's works and translations, I read them with much satisfaction. In passing, I must observe that of Homer's poems I greatly preferred the "Odyssey"; for the "Iliad" was too full of warlike descriptions for one of my pacific temper. I still retain this preference. My reading times were at my meals, and after I had left work in the evening.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'By courtesy of a friend I had the loan of Mr. Pope's poetical works together with his translations of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey". I also read Mr. Hervey's "Theron and Aspasia", but with no great pleasure, because of its chiefly dwelling upon controverted points of theology. I was induced to read it by a sense of what was due to the request of a valued friend. As to Mr. Pope's works and translations, I read them with much satisfaction. In passing, I must observe that of Homer's poems I greatly preferred the "Odyssey"; for the "Iliad" was too full of warlike descriptions for one of my pacific temper. I still retain this preference. My reading times were at my meals, and after I had left work in the evening.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

?Milton?s miscellaneous works were still my favourites. I copied many of his poems into a writing book, and this I did, not only an account of the pleasure which I felt in their repetition, and in the appropriation ? so to speak ? of the ideas, but also as a means for improvement of my handwriting, which had continued to be very indifferent. The "Odyssey" and "Aeniad", which I also procured and read about this time, seemed tame and languid, whilst the stirring call of the old Iliadic battle trumpet was ringing in my ears, and vibrating within my heart. In short, I read or attentively conned [sic] over, every book I could buy or borrow, and as I retained a pretty clear idea of what I read, I became rather more than commonly proficient in book knowledge considering that I was only a better sort of porter in a warehouse.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Bamford      Print: Book

  

Homer : unknown

?? in looking over the title pages, I met with Hobbes translation of Homer, I had some how or other heard that Homer was a great poet, but unfortunately I had never heard of Pope?s translation of him, so we eagerly purchased that by Hobbes. At this stall I also purchased Walker?s Poetical paraphrase of Epictetus?s Morals; and home we went, perfectly well pleased with our bargains. We that evening began with Hobbes's Homer; but found it very difficult for us to read, owing to the obscurity of the translation, which together with the indifferent language, and the want of poetical merit in the translator somewhat disappointed us; however we had from time to time many a hard puzzling hour with him. But as Walker's Epictetus, although it had not much poetical merit, yet it was very easy to be read, and as easily understood; and the principles of the Stoic [underlined] charmed me so much, that I made the book my companion wherever I went, and read it over and over...?

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: James Lackington      Print: Book

  

Homer : unknown

'[B]e not thrown into wild delight because his genius has shone forth--misfortune & rage have occasioned this & whenever he may speak himself [underlined] Lord Byron will succeed--self is the sole inspirer of his genius he cannot like Homer Dante Virgil Milton Dryden Spencer Gray--Goldsmith [underlined] Tasso write on other subjects well[--]but what he feels he can describe extravagantly well--& therefore I never did doubt that he would one day or other write again as at first--but for God sake do not let this circumstance make you forget what a Rogue he is''.

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Caroline Lamb      

  

Homer : Iliad

'Reading the Iliad, book III'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.]      Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

  

Homer : Iliad

'Reading; First book of Lucretius, 6th book of the Iliad; Samson Agonistes, Warton's History of English Poetry; Grote 2nd vol; Marcus Aurelius; Vita Nuova; vol IV, Chapter 1 of the Politique positive; Guest on English Rhythms, Maurice's Lectures on Casuistry'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.]      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'have been reading a little on philology, have finished the 24th book of the Iliad, the first book of the Faery Queene, Clough's poems, and a little about Etruscan things in Mrs Grey and Dennis. Aloud to G. I have been reading some Italian, Ben Jonson's Alchemist and Volpone, and Bright's speeches, which I am still reading - besides the first four cantos of Don Juan'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud.]      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

[Read] 'Iliad in Munro's edition'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud]      Print: Book

  

Homer : [book IV - of Iliad?]

'Homer IV. Foster, Physiology'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud]      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

[Read] 'Romanes, 'Theism'. Tiele, History of Religions. Odyssey.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud]      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'As Catherine Talbot later remarked of the "Odyssey", "Mr Pope's verse can give dignity to a peg or a pig, and the divine Eumaeus is so worthy a man, that I overlook the unlucky circumstance of his being a hogherd' [Letter to Elizabeth Carter, October 1746]

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Talbot      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'After reading Pope's "Illiad", the sixteen-year-old Burney confided in her journal that "I was never so charm'd with a poem in my life".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'Annabella was now reading Cowper's "Iliad" and annotating evey second line; she was studying Alfieri with the family-solicitor's daughter; for relaxation condescending to "Evelina". In "Evelina" she was disappointed, like a good many more of its readers - more perhaps than make the confession. There was study of Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge as well, for everyone was reading them... Annabella waded through "Madoc". She found some passages wearisome but was convinced that Southey would one day be ranked high "among the ancient poets".'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke      Print: Book

  

Homer : [poetry]

To Miss Hunt, July 7, 1792 'At present I am engaged in an argument with my dear Miss Bowdlen concerning Ossian. I support him against all other poets. You may easily guess who will say all I can for Ossian, for I really love [italics] his poems beyond all others. Milton must stand alone; but surely Ossian is in some respects [italics] superior to Homer.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Iliad

'On the penult of the year 1819 I reached the last line of the "Iliad". To speak of the merits of the Maeonian Bard from one perusal only may be deemed presumption - yet I may be allowed to say that my Enjoyment fell far short of Expectation. I found, & I am ashamed to say it, little to please and much to offend- The Morals of his Divinities are those of St Giles- their language that of Billingsgate or Wapping- His Nestors are garrulous beyond endurance...'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Mitchell      Print: BookManuscript: Letter

  

Homer : Iliad

[An account of the boy's secret reading, and how his parents only found out when he asked a question about his reading].

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: [a boy known to Elizabeth Hamilton]      Print: Book

  

Homer : [unknown]

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Homer : Illiad

'Later on I found at the bottom of a cupboard some of volumes -Addison's "Spectator", Pope's "Homer", and a few other things. My grandmother -who also devoured books in great gulps -gave me a "Robinson Crusoe", and lent me volumes containing four "Waverley Novels" apiece. Much about the same time my father got bound up a set of Dickens's novels he had bought in weekly parts. They were in the popular quarto edition with drawings by Fred Barnard, John Mahony and others. These were a real treasure -and all the more so as my father was an ardent Dickens "fan" who rather despised Scott as a "romantic" and a "Tory". His mother (born in 1815, so old enough to have read the "Waverley Novels" when they were still comparatively new things) rather sniffed at Dickens, and definitely preferred both Scott and Thackeray. She gave me "Vanity Fair" as an antidote to "David Copperfield" and added a Shakespeare, and a bundle of "paperback" editions -Fielding, Smollett, Fennimore Cooper and Captain Marryatt.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas A. Jackson      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'I read over your Homer here with an infinite pleasure, and find several little passages explained, that I did not before entirely comprehend the beauty of...It would be too tedious to you to point out all the passages that relate to present customs.'

Unknown
Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary, Lady Wortley Montagu      

  

Homer : Odyssey

'I hope we shall have soon the Odyssey from your happy hand, and I think I shall follow with singular pleasure the traveller Ulysses, who was an observer of men and manners, when he travels in your harmonious numbers.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary, Lady Wortley Montagu      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'It is true, the excellence of the Iliad does not depend upon his merit or dignity, but I wish, nevertheless, that Homer had chosen a hero somewhat less pettish and less fantastic: a perfect hero is chimerical and unnatural, and consequently uninstructive; but it is also true that while the epic hero ought to be drawn with the infirmities that are the lot of humanity, he ought never to be represented as extremely absurd.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary, Lady Wortley Montagu      Print: Book

  

Homer : [unknown]

''4th-11th- Reading Homer and basking in the sun upon the sea side of the breakwater. Weather delicious. Have also been swallowing autobiographies - Gifford's, Thomas Elwood's, Capt. Crichton's autobiography by Dean Swift.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: John Mitchel      Print: Book

  

Homer : Illiad

'The individual...was a fellow-worker of mine for nigh two years in Dartmoor. He had, in his younger days, passed through the workhouse; read the pestilent literature of rascaldom which has educated so many criminal characters in this country; then graduated in the "School", and ultimately became a noted burglar. His reading in prison had been pretty extensive, while his intelligence would have insured him a position in society above that of a labouring man... I could not help looking upon it as a very novel experience, for even this grotesque world, to have to listen to a man who could delight in a literary discussion, quote all the choice parts of Pope's "Illiad", and boast of having read Pascal and Lafontaine in the original, maintain, in sober argument, that "thieving was an honourable pursuit", and that religion, law, patriotism and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Iliad / Odyssey

'I am glad to hear that you are getting forward so well with Homer. I know almost nothing about him - having never read any thing but Pope's translation, and not above a single book of the original - & that several years ago. Indeed I know very little of the Greek at any rate. I have several times begun to read Xenophon's anabasis completely: but always gave it up in favour of something else - You complain that nothing that you do leaves a vestige behind it: - what do you make of Homer?'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle      Print: Book

  

Homer : [unknown]

'I have read since I saw you Burke's works, some books of Homer, Suetonius, a great deal of agricultural reading, Godwin's "Enquirer", and a great deal of Adam Smith. As I have scarcely looked at a book for five years, I am rather hungry'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith      Print: Book

  

Homer : unknown

"What is it sets Homer, Virgil and Milton in so high a rank of Art? Why is the Bible more Entertaining and Instructive than any other book? Is it not because they are addressed to the imagination, which is spiritual sensation, & but mediately to the understanding or Reason?"

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: William Blake      Print: Book, Unknown

  

Homer : Odyssey

Reader makes several references to the work: V.1, p.9, p.15, p.25, p.142; V.2 p.200. eg.: V.1 p.9 'Well, now I was very sure I would not smile this summer, nor yet read any book but the Bible and Night Thoughts*; even the Odyssey was to be rejected'. *'The Night Thoughts, and the Odyssey, were favourite studies among these friends, to which they were wont to make many serious and playful allusions' [footnote, p. 9] from Letter II to Miss Harriet Reid of Glasgow, April 28 1773. eg. p.25 'Though my sorrows should be multiplied, as very likely they may, I shall have consolations peculiarly my own, that, like Milton?s sweet music, ?will breathe above, about, and underneath?. How literal this truth is ?. A little dress, a little Odyssey, a little breakfast, and then ? I shall behold the faces of my kindred' from Letter III To Miss Reid.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar]      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

"Blake and I read every Evening that copy of the Iliad which your namesake of St Paul's was so good as to send me, comparing it with the 1st edition and with the Greek as we proceed - we shall be glad to see the odyssey also, as soon as it is visible - & with it the pages of the Iliad that were not dispatched from the press, when our copy arrived". Letter from William Hayley to John Johnson Letter 37

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: William Blake      Print: Book

  

Homer : [Iliad / Odyssey]

[Percy Shelley's Reading List for 1815, compiled by Mary Shelley. Only texts not referred to in journal entries are given separate database entries here] 'Pastor Fido Orlando Furioso Livy's History Seneca's Works Tasso's Girusalame Liberata Tassos Aminta 2 vols of Plutarch in Italian Some of the plays of Euripedes Seneca's Tragedies Reveries of Rousseau Hesiod Novum Organum Alfieri's Tragedies Theocritus Ossian Herodotus Thucydides Homer Locke on the Human Understanding Conspiration de Rienzi History of arianism Ochley's History of the Saracens Mad. de Stael sur la literature'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'I have read since last October a good deal of the history relating to the East ... : not much of books not connected with India. ... an "Odyssey" or two ...'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mountstuart Elphinstone      Print: Book

  

Homer : [unknown]

'S. reads Homer and writes'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'Read Julie - S reads Homer'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Illiad

'Read Tacitus and Buffon. S. reads Homer and Plutarch'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Hymns

'S finishes Homer's Hymns'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : 'Hymn to Mercury'

'S. finishes his translation of Homer's hymn to Mercury'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : [unknown]

'read Armata - read Homer'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'Read Homer - Old plays'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'finish the First book of the Odessey [sic] - read old plays'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'read 2 books of Homer'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley      Print: BookManuscript: Unknown

  

Homer : [probably] Odyssey

'Read Homer - Tacitus - Emile & 1 Canto of Dante'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'Read Homer - & Macchiavelli'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

'I have now finished [the 12th book, represented by a Greek character] of the Odyssey'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey and Iliad

'You seem so much interested with the translation of "Pastor Fido" that I shall take the liberty of sending it to you, that you may judge of its merits: not being skilled in the Italian tongue I cannot possibly give an opinion of it as a [italics] translation [end italics]. As anything else, I do not like it, nor ever liked pastorals or pastoral writing, even of the first order, further than as vehicles for fine poetry; and then the poetry would have pleased me better had it spoken for itself, than from the mouth of a creature to me so inconceivable as a shepherd or shepherdess, whose chief, or rather [italics] only [end italics] characteristics are innocence and simplicity. I am sorry to say they are but too apt to be insipid and uninteresting to those who merely read about them [she continues this critique at length, concluding] It may be owing to some defect in my mind that I really never yet knew an interesting pastoral character, or cared a straw about whether they hanged themselves upon the first willow, or drowned themselves in the neighbouring brook. I can enter into the delights of Homer's gods, and follow to their darkest recesses Milton's devils, and delight in the absurdities and extravagancies of Shakespeare's men and women, but I never could sympathise in the sufferings of even Virgil's shepherd swains'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Miss V[-]      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'Speaking of Homer, whom he venerated as the prince of poets, Johnson remarked that the advice given to Diomed by his father, when he sent him to the Trojan war, was the noblest exhortation that could be instanced in any heathen writer, and comprised in a single line: [Greek characters; 'Be ever best and o'ertop other men'; "Iliad" vi] which, if I recollect well, is translated by Dr. Clarke thus: [italics] semper appetere prestantissima, et omnibus aliis antecellere [end italics]'. [account by Dr Maxwell, an Irish London priest friend of Dr Johnson]

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad and Odyssey

'He repeated a good many lines of Horace's "Odes", while we were in the chaise. I remember particularly the Ode [italics] Eheu fugaces [italics]. He said, the dispute as to the comparative excellence of Homer or Virgil was inaccurate. "We must consider (said he) whether Homer was not the greatest poet, though Virgil may have produced the finest poem. Virgil was indebted to Homer for the whole invention of the structure of an epick poem, and for many of his beauties".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad and Odyssey

'After wandering about in a kind of pleasing distraction for some time, I got into a corner, with Johnson, Garrick, and Harris. GARRICK: (to Harris.) "Pray, Sir, have you read Potter's Aeschylus?" HARRIS. "Yes; and think it pretty." GARRICK. (to Johnson.) "And what think you, Sir, of it?" JOHNSON. "I thought what I read of it verbiage: but upon Mr. Harris's recommendation, I will read a play. (To Mr. Harris.) Don't prescribe two." Mr. Harris suggested one, I do not remember which. JOHNSON. "We must try its effect as an English poem; that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation. Translations are, in general, for people who cannot read the original." I mentioned the vulgar saying, that Pope's Homer was not a good representation of the original. JOHNSON."Sir, it is the greatest work of the kind that has ever been produced" BOSWELL. "The truth is, it is impossible perfectly to translate poetry. In a different language it may be the same tune, but it has not the same tone. Homer plays it on a bassoon; Pope on a flagelet".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad and Odyssey

'After wandering about in a kind of pleasing distraction for some time, I got into a corner, with Johnson, Garrick, and Harris. GARRICK: (to Harris.) "Pray, Sir, have you read Potter's Aeschylus?" HARRIS. "Yes; and think it pretty." GARRICK. (to Johnson.) "And what think you, Sir, of it?" JOHNSON. "I thought what I read of it verbiage: but upon Mr. Harris's recommendation, I will read a play. (To Mr. Harris.) Don't prescribe two." Mr. Harris suggested one, I do not remember which. JOHNSON. "We must try its effect as an English poem; that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation. Translations are, in general, for people who cannot read the original." I mentioned the vulgar saying, that Pope's Homer was not a good representation of the original. JOHNSON."Sir, it is the greatest work of the kind that has ever been produced" BOSWELL. "The truth is, it is impossible perfectly to translate poetry. In a different language it may be the same tune, but it has not the same tone. Homer plays it on a bassoon; Pope on a flagelet".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad and Odyssey

'After wandering about in a kind of pleasing distraction for some time, I got into a corner, with Johnson, Garrick, and Harris. GARRICK: (to Harris.) "Pray, Sir, have you read Potter's Aeschylus?" HARRIS. "Yes; and think it pretty." GARRICK. (to Johnson.) "And what think you, Sir, of it?" JOHNSON. "I thought what I read of it verbiage: but upon Mr. Harris's recommendation, I will read a play. (To Mr. Harris.) Don't prescribe two." Mr. Harris suggested one, I do not remember which. JOHNSON. "We must try its effect as an English poem; that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation. Translations are, in general, for people who cannot read the original." I mentioned the vulgar saying, that Pope's Homer was not a good representation of the original. JOHNSON."Sir, it is the greatest work of the kind that has ever been produced" BOSWELL. "The truth is, it is impossible perfectly to translate poetry. In a different language it may be the same tune, but it has not the same tone. Homer plays it on a bassoon; Pope on a flagelet".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell      Print: Book

  

Homer : 

'He begged of General Paoli to repeat one of the introductory stanzas of the first book of Tasso's "Jerusalem", which he did, and then Johnson found fault with the simile of sweetening the edges of a cup for a child, being transferred from Lucretius into an epick poem. The General said he did not imagine Homer's poetry was so ancient as is supposed, because he ascribes to a Greek colony circumstances of refinement not found in Greece itself at a later period, when Thucydides wrote. JOHNSON. "I recollect but one passage quoted by Thucydides from Homer, which is not to be found in our copies of Homer's works; I am for the antiquity of Homer, and think that a Grecian colony, by being nearer Persia, might be more refined than the mother country.".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Filippo Antonio Pasquale di Paoli      Print: Book

  

Homer : 

'He begged of General Paoli to repeat one of the introductory stanzas of the first book of Tasso's "Jerusalem", which he did, and then Johnson found fault with the simile of sweetening the edges of a cup for a child, being transferred from Lucretius into an epick poem. The General said he did not imagine Homer's poetry was so ancient as is supposed, because he ascribes to a Greek colony circumstances of refinement not found in Greece itself at a later period, when Thucydides wrote. JOHNSON. "I recollect but one passage quoted by Thucydides from Homer, which is not to be found in our copies of Homer's works; I am for the antiquity of Homer, and think that a Grecian colony, by being nearer Persia, might be more refined than the mother country.".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'RAMSAY. "I suppose Homer's 'Iliad' to be a collection of pieces which had been written before his time. I should like to see a translation of it in poetical prose like the book of Ruth or Job".'

Century:      Reader/Listener/Group: Allan Ramsay      Print: Book

  

Homer : 

'[from the Johnsoniana imparted by Bennet Langton to Boswell in 1780] Spanish plays, being wildly and improbably farcical, would please children here, as children are entertained with stories full of prodigies; their experience not being sufficient to cause them to be so readily startled at deviations from the natural course of life. The machinery of the Pagans is uninteresting to us: when a Goddess appears in Homer or Virgil, we grow weary; still more so in the Grecian tragedies, as in that kind of composition a nearer approach to Nature is intended. Yet there are good reasons for reading romances; as--the fertility of invention, the beauty of style and expression, the curiosity of seeing with what kind of performances the age and country in which they were written was delighted: for it is to be apprehended, that at the time when very wild improbable tales were well received, the people were in a barbarous state, and so on the footing of children, as has been explained.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson      Print: Book

  

Homer : odyssey

'[Johnson said] The books that we do read with pleasure are light compositions, which contain a quick succession of events. However, I have this year read all Virgil through. I read a book of the "Aeneid" every night, so it was done in twelve nights, and I had great delight in it. The "Georgicks" did not give me so much pleasure, except the fourth book. The "Eclogues" I have almost all by heart. I do not think the story of the "Aeneid" interesting. I like the story of the "Odyssey" much better; and this not on account of the wonderful things which it contains; for there are wonderful things enough in the "Aeneid";--the ships of the Trojans turned to sea-nymphs,--the tree at Polydorus's tomb dropping blood. The story of the "Odyssey" is interesting, as a great part of it is domestick.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson      Print: Book

  

Homer : Odyssey

Robert Southey to Thomas Davis Lamb, c. 18 June 1792: 'To see the manners of different countries is certainly of the utmost utility & what no university can teach — Homer may tell us of the method to cut up an ox three thousand years ago, or give a specimen of Penelopes politesses when she calls her maid bitch — or Ulysses decency when he threatens to leave Thersites in the situation of the man who cut off his hairs — but Homer can give no information either of men or manners as they are now — knowledge of the world is unattainable from books you have made a judicious choice.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

Robert Southey to Thomas Davis Lamb, c. 18 June 1792: 'To see the manners of different countries is certainly of the utmost utility & what no university can teach — Homer may tell us of the method to cut up an ox three thousand years ago, or give a specimen of Penelopes politesses when she calls her maid bitch — or Ulysses decency when he threatens to leave Thersites in the situation of the man who cut off his hairs — but Homer can give no information either of men or manners as they are now — knowledge of the world is unattainable from books you have made a judicious choice.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey      Print: Book

  

Homer : 

'[Mrs Ward's average day at Stocks began] at 5.30 a.m, with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's "Dix-huitieme siecle", she wrote to Mrs Creighton in August, 1908, "comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough - and there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before". Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, or the "Agamemnon", became gradually more precious to her than any other fraction of the day'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta ward      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Odyssey

'Read Freeman on race and language, which holds well to date, especially in his negation of Austria and Turkey as possible empires. John v Arabic and Homer's "Odyssey" xix.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Ronald Storrs      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Iliad

'In Greek, I have started to read Homer's Iliad, of which, of course, you must have heard. Although you don't know Greek & don't care for poetry, I cannot resist the temptation of telling you how stirring it is. Those fine, simple, euphonious lines, as they roll on with a roar like that of the ocean, strike a chord in one's mind that no modern literature approaches. Better or worse it may be; but different it is for certain.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis      Print: Book

  

Homer : [unknown]

Diary entry. June 16th, 1831: "I heard Stormy & Georgie read Homer & Xenophon — as usual, — tho’ I have not yet commemorated them here"

Unknown
Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning      

  

Homer : [unknown]

Diary entry. July 9th, 1831: "After breakfast, heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon"

Unknown
Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning      

  

Homer : [unknown]

Diary entry. August 8th, 1831: "I have written a letter to Papa, read the first vol: of the Last man, which Mrs. Martin has sent me at last —& read the whole of the 8th book of Marcus Antoninus, -& prepared some of the Seven Chiefs for Mr. Boyd, —besides hearing Storm & George read out of Homer & Zenophon. I feel nervous all over in my hands & feet —& cant write a word more."

Unknown
Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning      

  

Homer : Odyssey

‘...in my Sophocles I fail’d, chiefly from being put on in a misprinted passage – for the play was one I had studied with more than common attention. In Virgil I stumbled from mere confusion; the passage I had read, and that too carefully – fifty times at least. In Pindar I was not very far amiss; in the O-dyssee alone I have real cause for shame, for to tell the truth, I took it up for a make-weight, in the expectation of not being put on it at all. My Illiad, Euripides, Aeschylus, and Horace, were given me on paper.’

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Hartley Coleridge      Print: written and oral examinations

  

Homer : The Odyssey

The tourist class in the 'Athenia' was a distraction of wailing children and howling winds. I dislike the sea anyway when it is anything other than something blue that wraps itself round islands. Yet as I lay in my bunk between distasteful meals I read the Odyssey for the first time in Butcher and Lang's translation; and the roar and hiss of the waves was a part of its music. I was so transported with delight that I leapt up at intervals to walk about the narrow cabin floor, in an ecstasy that had to be expressed somehow, or choke me.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Odyssey

There is a cold air coming off Labrador, but not so bad as Syria. The sea is grey, exactly the colour of the seagulls with the white under their wings...I have the joy of the 'Odyssey': it made me forget even the roll of the waves, such is the triumph of beautiful words. It is a revelation; to think that I reached 35 without reading it.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark      Print: Book

  

Homer : The Iliad

After listing some canonical writers discussed by Pound and whom Ford had never read he then goes on to write: 'On the other hand I possess a certain patience and, if I feel that I am going to get anything out of it I can read in a prose or verse book for an infinite space of time. At school I was birched into reading Vergil, who always excited in me the same hostility that was aroused by Goethe's FAUST. Homer was also spoiled for me a good deal by the schoolmaster. The schoolmaster did not contrive however to spoil for me Euripides. I have a good part of the BACCHAE and some of the ALKESTIS still by heart. But so, indeed, I have Books Two and nine of the AENEID, so that those mnemonics form no criterion; But for myself I have, I have read most of the books recommended for the formation of my mind in HOW TO READ—excepting of course "CONFUCIUS in full..." [...] I have read Doughty's DAWN IN BRITAIN, an epic in twelve books. And SORDELLO only last night. And CANTO'S.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford      Print: Book

  

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