Homer

The Iliad

£70

Illustrated By Grahame Baker-Smith

Introduced By Bernard Knox

Translated By Robert Fagles

Homer’s epic poem relating a bloody clash of powers transcends the centuries in the hands of translator Robert Fagles, and is transformed into an exceptional collector’s edition by Folio.

The Iliad

£70

Book Details

Presentation Box & BindingQuarter-bound in blocked buckram with printed cloth sides
Blocked slipcase
Printed map endpapers

Dimensions10 inches x 6 ¾ inches

FontSet in Monotype Centaur

Pages688 pages

AuthorHomer

Illustrated ByGrahame Baker-Smith

IllustrationFrontispiece and 7 colour illustrations

Publication Date23/02/2006

Editor's Notes

As palaces are set ablaze, swords clash and lives are lost, it is impossible not to be moved by Homer’s 2,500-year-old descriptions of battle. In fact, never has the all-consuming power of war been more forcefully conveyed than in his spine-chilling epic, The Iliad.

Presented in a beautiful, quarter-bound buckram binding, this renowned translation by Robert Fagles is eloquent and accessible, drawing new readers and those familiar with the text into the heart of the ferocious ten-year war. As befits the era, Grahame Baker-Smith’s illustrations play with mythological allusion, while Bernard Knox discusses the Homeric tragedy and the nuances of this translation in an introduction that ensures this edition should be on every collector’s shelf.

About the Illustrator

Grahame Baker-Smith

Grahame Baker-Smith is a self-taught illustrator. He began to experiment with digital techniques, including Photoshop, several years ago, and now combines painting and drawing in traditional media with photographed and scanned textures, enjoying the control that digital methods give an artist over every aspect of the image. He has illustrated 16 books for The Folio Society, including Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne (2001), The Siege and Fall of Troy by Robert Graves (2005), Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (2011) and The Time Machine & The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells (2019).

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About the Illustrator

Grahame Baker-Smith

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About the Illustrator

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About the Illustrator

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About the Illustrator

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Homer was believed to have been born between the 12th and 8th centuries BC and may have lived on the coast of Asia Minor. Little is known about his life beyond which can be gleaned in his stories, and there have been many assumptions made based on his writing and the characters that appear in his work. It is generally accepted that The Iliad was written first and The Odyssey was written later in Homer’s life. Although these are the only two works attributed to Homer, many others have been linked to him, including Homeric Hymns.

Bernard Knox was born in Bradford in 1914. He studied Classics at Cambridge, after which he fought in the Spanish Civil War with the Republican forces. After the Second World War, Knox studied at Yale and earned a doctorate. He worked as a professor and went on to lead the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington. As well as writing the introductions to Robert Fagles’s translations of Homer’s The Iliad (1990) and The Odyssey (1996) and Virgil’s Aeneid (2006), he wrote a number of books including Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles’ Tragic Hero and His time (1957). Knox died in 2010.

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