The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey

by Rosemary Sutcliff

A master storyteller and an award-winning illustrator evoke the golden age of mythical Greece in this spirited retelling of "The Odyssey."

The long siege is ended. Troy lies in ashes. The black ships of the Greek war-host set sail for home but for King Odysseus of Ithaca, the return voyage holds hazards far greater than any he faced in the TrojanWar.

For this dramatic sequel to Black Ships Before Troy, Rosemary Sutcliff has transformed Homer’s magnificent but complex epic poem The Odyssey into an enthralling traveler's tale, with a spectacular cast of men, magicians and monsters. Alan Lee evokes a golden age of mythical Greece in his portrayal of the greatest voyage of all time.

Genres: Mythology, Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Young Adult

135 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Rosemary Sutcliff, CBE (1920-1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of highly acclaimed historical fiction. Although primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults. She once commented that she wrote "for children of all ages, from nine to ninety."

Born in West Clandon, Surrey, Sutcliff spent her early youth in Malta and other naval bases where her father was stationed as a naval officer. She contracted Still's Disease when she was very young and was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. Due to her chronic sickness, she spent the majority of her time with her mother, a tireless storyteller, from whom she learned many of the Celtic and Saxon legends that she would later expand into works of historical fiction. Her early schooling being continually interrupted by moving house and her disabling condition, Sutcliff didn't learn to read until she was nine, and left school at fourteen to enter the Bideford Art School, which she attended for three years, graduating from the General Art Course. She then worked as a painter of miniatures.

Rosemary Sutcliff began her career as a writer in 1950 with The Chronicles of Robin Hood. She found her voice when she wrote The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. In 1959, she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers and was runner-up in 1972 with Tristan and Iseult. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her The Mark of the Horse Lord won the first Phoenix Award in 1985.

Sutcliff lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex. In 1975 she was appointed OBE for services to Children's Literature and promoted to CBE in 1992. She wrote incessantly throughout her life, and was still writing on the morning of her death. She never married.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/rosema...

Reviews

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had picked this one up as a quick refresher (after making the mistake of not reading Iliad along with the original Odyssey reading). It serves that purpose. Some of the translations are even remarkably well rendered. However, it was not too useful as an easy companion to Ulysses since Sutcliff rearranged the structure of the epic completely to make it a linear narrative, which is a huge disservice, both to the epic and to the reader.

All in all, it is a sort of Cliff’s notes with stunning illustrations.












As you can see, this is a good one for the shelves. It would be a good buy just to have that cover - so that you can tease guests if they would like to see a pic of Odysseus and then pull this one out and show the Tattered Traveller!

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

As in Black Ships Before Troy, Rosemary Sutcliff writes a story of an epic that many adults are afraid to read for fear of the classics, in a manner that is captivating and understandable. It is by no means dumbed down and yet my children could easily understand the story.

Alan Lee's watercolor illustrations are beautiful and keep the youngest listener sitting quietly to hear the story while seeing the pictures.

The characters and the story are so easy to read that it is an easy transition to pick up Homer's Odysseus and read it.

If you are an adult and have never read Homer's version, I highly recommend reading this for your own enjoyment as well.

[Saffron Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Master storyteller Rosemary Sutcliff’s adaptation of Odysseus is her fabulous follow-up to Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of The Iliad. Again her adaptation is accessible to all ages and stays true to it’s source materials. Alan Lee’s illustrations bring incredible beauty and life to the legendary tales. Like the first book in this two book series, this oversized hardcover edition is gorgeous to look at and is quite engaging. Highly recommended.

[Superlopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

La verdad es que lo esperaba peor por lo que me habían contado y visto pero realmente no me ha disgustado.
Es cierto que no es muy buen libro y es un poco raro (porque además hay un lío tremendo con los nombres de los personajes) pero me ha parecido entretenido.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent retelling of the Odyssey. We enjoyed it even more than the Iliad retelling.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this house we love Odysseus and Penelope.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fabulous retelling of the Odyssey. Illustrations by Alan Lee were just as captivating as Black Ships Before Troy. My girls (5 and 7) loved this even with its advanced vocabulary and story structure.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My girls and I loved this adaptation to The Odyssey! The illustrations are great and the story is so entertaining and a great introduction to more in depth reading when they're older.

Highly recommended!!!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosemary Sutcliff retelling the story of Odysseus as illustrated by Alan Lee. Absolutely nothing that could be improved (obviously)!

[Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sutcliff captures the principal contours of the Odyssey, while sacrificing some of the artistry of the narrative flow/structure of the source material. All in all, this is an impressive effort to introduce the Odyssey to young (middle school) readers. The artwork is beautiful.

[Annie Bruza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great introduction to the story and a fun read-aloud.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosemary Sutcliff's retelling of the Odyssey is, like her retelling of the Iliad, illustrated by Alan Lee. It's gorgeous, just like the first book -- I love the illustration of the Sirens, and Calypso comforting Odysseus, and Ino saving him from the storm... It's lovely.

The story itself is very simple, given that it's aimed at children. It's quite lovely in its simplicity, though; it works very well alongside Alan Lee's illustrations.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books are great for introducing Homer to young readers. Jonas really enjoyed them.

[Arianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

no me creo q de vrd me termine este libro, algunos capítulos me aburrieron y otros si que me gustaron.

[Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent companion to Sutcliff's "Iliad" retelling! We read the 1995 paperback edition of "The Wanderings of Odysseus" which is without any illustrations.

The text is beautiful. I would heartily recommend Sutcliff's duo to anyone from middle school to adulthood, and with reservations to mature upper elementary kids already accustomed to Greek mythology, Shakespeare, and fairy tales (and who are not overly sensitive to themes of death and violence). I wish we had gotten to these earlier than high school, but it is what it is; this was still a great time to enjoy these books. They are intelligent and rich. If you and/or your kids are arriving "late" like we are, take heart and press on!

Now for the full Iliad/Odyssey pair! *girds loins* 😂

*Note: there is a lot of violence and death. Greek mythology with gods and goddesses, enchantments, land of the dead. Other themes are chaste and tasteful.
Another reviewer noted that the illustrated edition includes multiple instances of female nudity.

[Violet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not a fan of this book. I had to read it for school and if it weren't for that I probably never would have given it a second glance. The only good part was the part with the sirens but other than that the book was pretty boring. If you're a mythology fanatic then you'll probably like this book, but I'm not crazy for mythology so it didn't entertain me. I like learning about mythology but stuff like this puts me to sleep, but in reality it's not a "boring" book it's very action packed and that's what I found boring. Too much fighting and stuff like that I find boring because we all know how those kinds of fights end and nothing ever changes. Another critique I have is the fact that I hate Odysseus' character. He's very self centered and isn't loyal in the slightest. 3 adjectives that could describe him are: ignorant, egotistical, and disloyal. So in conclusion, the book sucked.

[Amy Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this. I just finished reading this aloud to my younger kids, something I did in tandem with rereading and studying The Odyssey with my older kids. It's nice that Sutcliff tells the tale in chronological order for this age range. The in media res beginning to The Odyssey can be confusing to first time readers. I love introducing the story this way early on, so Homer's wonderful way of weaving the tale is less confusing.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have truly enjoyed Rosemary Sutcliff’s retelling of both The Odyssey and The Iliad. I believe she does a beautiful job of capturing the heart of Homer’s epics while making them accessible to young (and not so young) readers. I am excited to introduce my children to her works.

[Michelle Fournier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this retelling of the Odyssey! I enjoyed this one more than Black Ships From Troy but both are well done and very readable. A great first experience for my 11&12 yo with these great stories.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a retelling/introduction, this is excellent. Of course, you should also read the original at some point!

[Nicole Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one. I'm new to finally enjoying mythology!

[Joelle Andris · Rating 3 out of 5]

we read this for homeschool a while ago, and it was pretty good:) i don't remember any bad or boring things about it

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to the basic story of The Odyssey.

[Keeley Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh 🧍🏻‍♀️

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jacob listened to for AO Y6...krb 5/31/19

Made lots of connections while listening to these stories by Sutcliff..krb 5/31/19

[Amanda Erdman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t really love this story, but I do think this is the best retelling of it I have read. In preparation for reading The Iliad and The Odyssey with my kids, I read several versions and translations. These by Rosemary Sutcliff are the best in my opinion. When they are older they can read the adult versions if they want to, but thankfully I think I am done with the Odyssey…at least for a long time. 🤣 I liked the Iliad quite a bit better as I think my other kids did as well. I was also impressed with the way Sutcliff developed the true love between Odysseus and Penelope, the special relationship between Odysseus and his parents, and the father/som relationship between Odysseus and Telemachus. There are a million great lessons in the story that I think my kids understood without any lecturing. The hard thing about the Odyssey is that it becomes similar to
A Comedy of Errors, and gets frustrating that Odysseus just can’t seem to get home. But of course everything ends up all right in the end.

[Noah Harrold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this on the floor today and gave it a quick read. A real simplistic telling of the odyssey.

[Laney · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. My daughter will be reading this for her sixth grade class this year and her teacher recommended parents read the same books along with them. It was a good review of Greek gods/mythology but it definitely felt like a very quick overview of everything. I think it’s a condensed kids version of the Odyssey and I missed the meat and the deeper dive on some of the stories.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would not recommend this book to children. Because it has been simplified into plain language, the violent events are depicted in an even more gruesome manner than in the original epic poem, which I feel makes this book inappropriate for children to be reading on their own. In addition, I was not very impressed by the writing in this book. It is choppy and simplistic, written more in summary format than in a fluid narrative, which makes it rather dry and boring, especially during the parts that do not feature action. So, although it is a good introduction to The Odyssey, I would instead choose to wait until my children are old enough to read the story in the original poem form instead of having them read this since the language of the poem is not much more difficult than that used in this retelling, and it will introduce them the story as literature rather than a story.

[Ron Bajrami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about Odysseus, the mythical king of Ithaca, who has to get home from Troy, but does not know the way. The setting is in Greece, and Odysseus's external conflict, is him dealing with the God's and monsters. Odysseus's internal conflict, is him trying to find home and thinking about his wife and kids.

When Odysseus fights the Cyclops and kills him, it reminds me of when Apollo, the god of music killed the Cyclops for killing his son.

I would give this book 5 stars, because I really love Homer's tales, and this book was a great one. Very interesting and caught my eye. This is how books should be written. I would reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in Greek Mythology.