Stories from Greek Mythology

by James Wood

The following Tales, composed principally to interest the youthful Reader in the Greek Mythology, are derived partly from the classical originals, and partly from excellent versions of them in German. They are written from a poetic representations of vital elements in the mystery of life to this hour.

Genres: Classics, Fantasy

142 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1867

About the author

James Douglas Graham Wood is an English literary critic, essayist and novelist. He is currently Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard University (a part-time position) and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine.
Wood advocates an aesthetic approach to literature, rather than more ideologically-driven trends in academic literary criticism.
Wood is noted for coining the genre term hysterical realism, which he uses to denote the contemporary conception of the "big, ambitious novel" that pursues vitality "at all costs." Hysterical realism describes novels that are characterized by chronic length, manic characters, frenzied action, and frequent digressions on topics secondary to the story.

Reviews

[Mau Supan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I liked it, took me some time reading it. Though, I highlighted most of it. :O

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short book, of eight mostly unrelated short stories. I tend to like Greek mythology and the short story format, but because they are distinct it's difficult to review them as an ensemble.

Right out the gate, I loved Orpheus and Eurydice. Aside from feeling like it spoke to me at this particular point in time, it was well-written and captivating. I also like an ancient myth that takes a character into the underworld; fascinating stuff, which often raises questions and ideas that I'm not able to resolve internally, leaving me something to chew on for a while.

II: The Sleep of Endymion...not great, not terrible.

III: The Tale of the Beautiful Psyche...loved it! This was an inspiring character and an engaging story with—you guessed it—a journey to Hades/Pluto included. :)

IV: Cupid and the Graces - a nice little history of Cupid and his significance, right after he was featured prominently in the previous story. Little bit of deep ideas, little bit of dry material here.

V: Midas - a cute warning story, almost a proverb, about foolish desires.

And with VI-VIII, I was either not getting it or they were just not as good as the first half of the book. I expected more of a story with Hercules in it, but The Argonauts failed to deliver.

[Eliran · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was such a slog reading through this but glad I finished!
So many things wrong with this translation(been stated by other reviewers before me):
-the author uses Romanized names of deities(after all it's GREEK mythology, stay with the proper names!)
- the author was a priest, hence there is a lot of Christian commentary and perspective written along side the myths
-the writing style is very difficult to read and hard to even remember what the story was about
There are better books about Greek myths out there, don't bother with this one.

[Tina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possibly the worst "translation" of Greek mythology ever.

1) He uses Roman names instead of Greek.
2) Almost every sentence is a run-on that says abosolutely nothing.
3) Completely useless juxtaposition with Christian mythos. (author was a priest)
4) Quiz yourself five minutes after reading a story. If you remember what the tale was even about then congrats, you're already familiar with ancient mythology. This is useless as an introduction to "Greek" mythology.

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

After starting to read the poorly written 4th story about Cupid(which the author changed to something else) I closed the book and stopper reading. The changes he made to the stories just made them hard to enjoy. Would not recommend this book to anyone

[Varshini · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely collection of various stories from Greek Mythology. Of course there were some stories that I liked more than others, but I really dredged through reading Cupid and The Graces. Besides that though, I loved the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, The Tale of the Beautiful Psyche and Midas.

[Michelle Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was interesting. I don't know how close it was to the literal translations but it was still good literature candy. :)

[Calvin Utomo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's free, just to fill time

[Siying · Rating 4 out of 5]

some stories were difficult to understand, there isn't a plot and the purpose of the story unclear. the tale on psyche and cupid were the best.

[Ankita Singhal · Rating 2 out of 5]

a very slow book

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I thought, but it was ok