War and the Iliad / by Simone Weil and Rachel Bespaloff ; translated by Mary McCarthy ; introduction by Christopher Benfey ; [afterword by Hermann Broch].

By:

Weil, Simone, 1909-1943 [author]

Contributor(s):

McCarthy, Mary, 1912-1989 [author]

Material type: Text

TextLanguage: English Original language: French Publication details: New York : New York Review Books, c2005.Description: xxiii, 121 pages ; 21 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

1590171454

Uniform titles:

Iliade, ou, le poème de la force. English

Contained works:

Bespaloff, Rachel [author]

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

883.01

Online resources:

Publisher description

Contents:

A Tale of two Iliads / Christopher Benfey -- The Iliad, or The poem of force / Simone Weil -- On the Iliad / Rachel Bespaloff -- The style of the Mythical Age / Hermann Broch.

Summary: "Simone Weil's "The Iliad, or the Poem of Force" is one of her most celebrated works - an inspired analysis of Homer's epic that presents a nightmare vision of combat as a machine in which all humanity is lost. First published on the eve of war in 1939, the essay has often been read as a pacifist manifesto. Rachel Bespaloff was a French contemporary of Weil's whose work similarly explored the complex relations between literature, religion, and philosophy. She composed her own distinctive discussion of the Iliad in the midst of World War II - calling it "her method of facing the war" - and, as Christopher Benfey argues in his introduction, the essay was very probably written in response to Weil. Bespaloff's account of the Iliad brings out Homer's novelistic approach to character and the existential drama of his characters' choices; it is marked, too, by a tragic awareness of how the Iliad speaks to times and places where there is no hope apart from war. This edition brings together these two influential essays for the first time, accompanied by Benfey's scholarly introdcuction and an afterord by the great Austrian novelist Hermannn Broch." -- Back cover.

List(s) this item appears in: Anne Stewart's Collection

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 3 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Book - 7-day loan	CYA Library Main Collection	883.01 WEI (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		00000011018

Total holds: 0

Originally published as two separate essays: L'Iliade, ou, le poème de la force / Simone Weil ; De l'Iliade / Rachel Bespaloff. Now published together and translated into English.

A Tale of two Iliads / Christopher Benfey -- The Iliad, or The poem of force / Simone Weil -- On the Iliad / Rachel Bespaloff -- The style of the Mythical Age / Hermann Broch.

"Simone Weil's "The Iliad, or the Poem of Force" is one of her most celebrated works - an inspired analysis of Homer's epic that presents a nightmare vision of combat as a machine in which all humanity is lost. First published on the eve of war in 1939, the essay has often been read as a pacifist manifesto. Rachel Bespaloff was a French contemporary of Weil's whose work similarly explored the complex relations between literature, religion, and philosophy. She composed her own distinctive discussion of the Iliad in the midst of World War II - calling it "her method of facing the war" - and, as Christopher Benfey argues in his introduction, the essay was very probably written in response to Weil. Bespaloff's account of the Iliad brings out Homer's novelistic approach to character and the existential drama of his characters' choices; it is marked, too, by a tragic awareness of how the Iliad speaks to times and places where there is no hope apart from war.
This edition brings together these two influential essays for the first time, accompanied by Benfey's scholarly introdcuction and an afterord by the great Austrian novelist Hermannn Broch." -- Back cover.