Paris of Troy

by George Philip Baker

Excerpt from Paris of Troy

We rode on. With every hour we put between ourselves and the city his spirits rose; he laughed and 'chattered like the child he really was. But he never forgot that the jour ney was part of his training as a prince and a soldier. His quick glance missed nothing, and his comments were shrewd.

There Was a rude sort of cottage at the edge of a deep wood on the lowest slope of the mountain, where I planned to spend the night. The herdsman who lived there with his wife was known to me, and Pielus had arranged our coming, or we might not have supped so well; as it was a kid steeped in milk, some small cakes and fruit were set before us. The herdsman's wife would have fussed over Aeneas, had not the old man muttered to her that the boy was not to be treated so. Aeneas had been in the saddle most of the day, and was soon asleep, on the low couch piled with skins that had been prepared for him. Archelaus and I sat in the doorway, and evening came down on the Trojan plain. The stars came out, slowly at first, then by constella tions; the woman Rhodope watched sleeping Aeneas hungrily.

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220 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1944

Reviews

[Bruce Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An attempt to rewrite the story of Paris as a factual memoir, without the legendary involvement of the gods.

In its day that alone may have made it a book worth reading, most people studied the classics at school and would, perhaps, have been interested in seeing the Iliad demystified. It has not really stood the test of time, however, and seems rather flat in this age of epic movies and action sequences.

The version I read was a modern republication by forgotten books. I was disappointed with that as some of the pages had been badly photocopied and the final page was missing altogether.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this off my shelf because it is small and would be easy to take on vacation. I hadn’t realized that the recent trend of writing modern retellings of old classics is not so recent. This was great vacation book. Good story, and fun to read the author’s interesting twists on the Trojan horse, the story of Helen and Paris, etc.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s the story of the Iliad from Paris’ point of view, through another character's description.

I randomly found this book in a used bookshop in Melbourne and I loved it. At times it’s ridiculous and over the top and I’m pretty sure the author just rewrote the Iliad to insert himself in it, but it’s also brilliant. He manages to amalgamate all the different versions of the Iliad (ex: is Helen in Troy or in Egypt?) and comes up with really smart plot points. I will add that this book is my much better if you know the Iliad really well.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a re-writing of the Iliad, but the story told from a completely different perspective. Walk beside a warrior of Troy who is 'captured' by the Spartans and goes lengths for love. Romantic and Tragic.