A FAIR WIND FOR TROY

by Doris Gates ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1976

The Oath,"" ""The Abduction of Helen,"" ""The Gathering of the Chiefs,"" ""The Sacrifice of Iphigenia"": What Edith Hamilton covers in three fluent, readable pages on the prologue to the Trojan War, Gates treats as four chapters, in about fifteen times as many words. (A fifth chapter winds things up, with a few short pages on the fail of Troy and the fate of the returning heroes.) We tend to find Gates' novelistic padding superfluous, especially as her initial attempts to tuck all the necessary background machinations into the narrative are only half-heartedly fictionalized, if that. However, she does make more of a conventional ""story"" of Iphigenia's end than does Roger L. Green, who also treats it at length, and of course the whole does read more naturally than Colum's The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy, which overlaps considerably.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION