18 books like Homer and His Age

What to read after Homer and His Age — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Odyssey of Homer Richmond Lattimore · 2007 · ★ 3.9 · 374p · ≈ 12h · Moderate An English translation of the Greek epic in which Odysseus makes his long and treacherous journey home after the Trojan War, while his son Telemachos and wife Penelope are forced to scheme to protect his throne until his return. Includes a glossary, background information, literary criticism, and illustrations. Shares: Greek Epic poetry, Epic poetry

The quest for Arthur's Britain Geoffrey Ashe · 1968 · ★ 3.8 · 238p · ≈ 7h · Moderate "A useful compendium of information about the Arthurian problem, the Arthurian legend, and about what archaeology says of western Britain." —Glyn Daniel, The Guardian   The legend of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table dominates the mythology of Britain, but could this story prove more fact than fiction? Recent archaeological findings have led Geoffrey Ashe to believe there is more… Shares: Homes, Homes and haunts, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

Passages from the American note-books of Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1860 · ★ 4.0 · 460p · ≈ 15h · Challenging The American Notebooks follows chronological order, tracing Hawthorne's development over a period of eighteen years. The individual entries, however, are quite random in their makeup and contain adages, animal folklore, and biblical references that captivated Hawthorne. Observations of people whom he saw in the streets of nineteenth century Salem, Boston, and North Adams, Massachusetts, are mixed… Shares: Homes, Homes and haunts, Biography & Memoir

Griechische Mythologie Preller, Ludwig · 1854 · 964p · ≈ 32h · Demanding Ludwig Prellers Griechische Mythologie entfaltet den gesamten Kosmos der griechischen Götter-, Schöpfungs- und Heldensagen als wissenschaftlich geordnetes Handbuch. Schon die Vorreden machen den Anspruch deutlich: Preller sieht Mythologie als schwer systematisierbaren Stoff, den er aus verstreuter Forschung, Dichtung, Kunst und eigener Anschauung zusammenführt, zunächst mit knappen… Shares: Greek Epic poetry, Mythology

Comedies Publius Terentius Afer · 1616 · ★ 5.0 · 334p · ≈ 11h · Demanding Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Shares: Ancient & Classical, Literary Criticism

Anatomy of a Robot Despina Kakoudaki · 2014 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Why do we find artificial people fascinating? Drawing from a rich fictional and cinematic tradition, Anatomy of a Robot explores the political and textual implications of our perennial projections of humanity onto figures such as robots, androids, cyborgs, and automata. In an engaging, sophisticated, and accessible presentation, Despina Kakoudaki argues that, in their narrative and cultural… Shares: Literary, Literary Criticism, Biography & Memoir

The discovery of King Arthur Geoffrey Ashe · 1985 · ★ 3.8 · 226p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Ashe offers convincing proof that Arthur not only existed, but was more like the Arthur of legend than historians ever suspected. Shares: Homes, Homes and haunts, Biography & Memoir

History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides · 1526 · ★ 4.0 · 399p · ≈ 13h · Demanding Written four hundred years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling its author's ambitious claim. Thucydides himself (c.460-400 BC) was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war. He applied thereafter a passion for accuracy and a contempt… Shares: Ancient & Classical, Literary Criticism

Prolegomena ad Homerum, sive, De operum Homericorum prisca et genuina forma variisque mutationibus et probabili ratione emendandi Friedrich August Wolf · 1795 · 298p · ≈ 9h · Demanding Shares: Greek Epic poetry, Literary Criticism, History and criticism, Mythology

Walden and Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau · 1960 · ★ 3.6 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate A transcendentalist classic on social responsibility and a manifesto that inspired modern protest movements  Critical of 19th-century America’s booming commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau moved to a small cabin in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts in 1845. Walden, the account of his stay near Walden Pond, conveys at once a naturalist’s wonder at the commonplace and a… Shares: Homes, Homes and haunts, Biography & Memoir

Routledge Revivals A. J. Arberry · 2016 · 248p · ≈ 8h · Moderate First published in 1953, this translation of part of the Arabian Nights by A. J. Arberry offers four famous stories in modern idiom: Aladdin, Judar, Aboukir and Abousir, and the Amorous Goldsmith. The introduction provides a brief analysis of earlier translations of the tales and explains their value as indicators of the society in which they were written.This work will be of interest to those… Shares: Literary Criticism, History and criticism

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary J.R.R. Tolkien · 2001 · ★ 4.1 · 448p · ≈ 14h · Moderate From his creative attention to detail in these lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if he entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth, or looking up in amazement at Grendel's… Shares: Epic poetry, History and criticism

Steaming into a Victorian future Julie Anne Taddeo · 2012 · 347p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Examines various manifestations of steampunk in order to better understand steampunk sub-culture & its effect on popular culture & wider society. Expands & extends existing scholarship on steampunk in order to explore many previously unconsidered questions about cultural creativity, social networking, fandom, appropriation, & creation of meaning. Shares: Literary, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

Modern Retellings of Chivalric Texts Gloria Allaire · 2018 · 176p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Published in 1999, the ten essays in this collection identify and examine reworkings of identifiable source texts from the medieval or Renaissance periods. The reasons for the modern adaptations depend variously on an individual author’s personal perspectives, the worldview of his or her society, and the individual’s place in it. The various chapters therefore address issues such as why a… Shares: Literary, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

Apollonius Rhodius Apollonius Rhodius · 1550 · ★ 3.8 · 184p · ≈ 6h · Demanding "Apollonius Rhodius's Argonautica, composed in the third century B.C.E., is the epic retelling of Jason's quest for the golden fleece. Along with his contemporaries Callimachus and Theocritus, Apollonius refashioned Greek poetry to meet the interests and aesthetics of a Hellenistic audience, especially that of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic period following Alexander's death. In this carefully… Shares: Greek Epic poetry, Epic poetry

Grendel John Gardner · 1971 · ★ 3.7 · 174p · ≈ 5h · Moderate The first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic Beowulf, tells his own side of the story in this frequently banned book. This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic. This is the book William Gass called "one of the finest of our… Shares: Epic poetry, Civilization, Mythology

The Fall of Arthur J.R.R. Tolkien · 2013 · ★ 3.3 · 240p · ≈ 8h · Moderate The first publication of a previously unknown narrative poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England's legendary hero, King Arthur. Shares: Epic poetry, History and criticism

Early modern English lives Ronald Bedford · 2007 · 249p · ≈ 8h · Moderate How did early modern English people write about themselves, and how do we listen to their voices four centuries later? The authors of Early Modern English Lives: Autobiography and Self-Representation 1500-1660 argue that identity is depicted through complex, subtle, and often contradictory social interactions and literary forms. Diaries, letters, daily spiritual reckonings, household journals,… Shares: Historical, Literary Criticism, History and criticism, Biography & Memoir

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