A 5th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION, FEATURING A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR
Madeline Miller is the author of The Song of Achilles, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012, was shortlisted for the Stonewall Writer of the Year 2012, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and was translated into twenty-five languages. Miller holds an MA in Classics from Brown University, and she taught Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students for over a decade. She lives outside Philadelphia. madelinemiller.com
A novel to be gobbled greedily in a single sitting
*Observer*
Circe is poised to become the literary sensation of the summer, as
much for the quality of its writing as its timeliness
*Sunday Times Magazine*
Enough magic, enchantment, voyages and wonders to satisfy the most
jaded sword-and-sorcery palate. Miller approaches Odysseus’s story
from Circe’s point of view, richly evoking her protagonist’s
overlapping identities as goddess, witch, lover and mother
*Guardian, Books of the Year*
A triumph
*The Times, Books of the Year*
Circe back as superwoman … Homer’s witch get a kickass modern
makeover… Miller’s Me Too-era, kickass portrait of a woman trying
to defy the men and Fates arrayed against her is enchanting…
Blisteringly modern
*The Times*
In a thrilling tour de force of imagination, Miller makes her
otherworldly heroine a complex, sympathetic figure for whom we
cheer throughout. Circe is a truly spellbinding novel, the
mesmerising shimmer of ancient magic rising from it like a heat
haze
*Mail on Sunday*
A brilliantly strange work of mythic science fiction, as
effortlessly expressive within the palaces of gods as it is about
the world below … Superb … This is both a fabulous novel and a
fascinating retelling; the best compliment, perhaps, that any myth
could hope for
*Daily Telegraph*
This year’s novels were filled with the angry clamour of women’s
voices: ignored, idealistic or excitingly ambivalent. Madeline
Miller reflected the mood for feminist revisionism with her lissom
follow-up Circe, which casts the witch goddess in the Odyssey not
as a bit player in a man’s epic but as the star of her own show
*Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year*
It was a big year for creative retelling of myth and pre-modern
literature; a favourite was Madeline Miller's Circe, a distinctive,
lyrical novel about power, agency and reponsibility, from the point
of view of this crafty, much-misunderstood goddess
*Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year*
The writing is lovely, the tone assured, and the touch just
right
*Independent, Books of the Year*
It is out of these insights that Miller achieves real narrative
propulsion … Supple, pitched in a register that bridges man and
myth
*Guardian*
The first witch in Western literature sets Homer straight as she
tells her life story, from her unhappy childhood to her lonely
island exile. The woman who emerges is complex and sympathetic. A
spellbinding tour de force of imagination
*Mail on Sunday, ‘Sizzling summer reads’*
Miller has effected a transformation just as impressive as any of
her heroine’s own: she’s turned an ancient tale of female
subjugation into one of empowerment and courage full of
contemporary resonances
*Independent*
What more could you wish for on holiday than this fabulously
written re-imagining of the myth? Gods, monsters and mortals are
lushly evoked in a page-turner that is as gripping as a soap opera
and which triumphantly fuses myth with our contemporary
concerns
*Daily Mail, Books of the Summer 2018*
Dubbed the ‘feminist Odyssey’, there’s so much to like about Circe.
From the author of the much-loved The Song of Achilles, this novel
puts a feminist spin on Greek mythology, recasting Circe, the
vilified witch infamous for turning men into pigs, in a sympathetic
light. Subverting the usual masculine tropes of epic adventure
narratives, Miller tells the story of the women who have been
historically silenced. And on top of that, she makes Greek myths
and culture, which is often perceived as impenetrable and
intimidating, accessible. A real page-turner
*Elle Magazine*
Illuminates known stories from a new perspective … Miller has
determined, in her characterization of this most powerful witch, to
bring her as close as possible to the human, as a thoughtful and
compassionate woman who learns to love unselfishly … A highly
psychologized, redemptive and ultimately exculpatory account of the
protagonist herself
*New York Times*
The Orange prizewinner Madeline Miller reimagines Circe, the witch
from The Odyssey. In Miller’s retelling Circe is a suitably bolshie
character who is not going to be bossed around by men. The writing
is beautiful
*The Times*
An epic that’s also a page-turner
*i*
Fabulous … Bold and sensuously written, it plays brilliantly with
the original myth of Circe
*Daily Mail*
I’ve been waiting for Circe by Madeline Miller for what feels like
forever. Since her 2011 debut, The Song of Achilles – a queer
retelling of the Iliad from Patroclus’ perspective – I’ve been
crowing about the wit and magic of Miller’s prose. Circe did not
disappoint. It’s a feminist tale of the nymph child of Helios, the
sun god, who is exiled for practising witchcraft. Circe lives for
hundreds of years, encountering heroes, gods and legends, but it
never feels like a Greek mythology lesson. Actually, it feels more
like a splashy, gossipy memoir written by a celebrity who has met
everyone. I suspect this will be my book of the year
*Irish Times*
Greek myth is fertile fictional terrain for Miller, who won the
Orange Prize with her debut, The Song of Achilles. Her new novel is
narrated by Circe, the witch from Homer’s Odyssey, who is banished
to a remote island and there learns how to survive as a woman alone
in the world
*Independent, Books of 2018*
A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess’s story that manages
to be both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most
infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own
right
*New York Times*
[Miller] gives voice to Circe as a multifaceted and evolving
character ... Circe is very pleasurable to read, combining lively
versions of familiar tales and snippets of other, related standards
with a highly psychologized, redemptive and ultimately exculpatory
account of the protagonist herself
*New York Times Book Review*
God though she may be, here she faces life – and its love,
heartbreak, loneliness and motherhood – with immensely relatable
humanity. The definition of female strength in all its fractured,
fragile glory
***** Stylist*
Offers opportunities for feminist revision of famous characters
both mortal and divine, especially the egotistical Odysseus and the
irresponsible and laddish Hermes. It also leads to a suspenseful
metaphysical dilemma … Polished diction and descriptive powers
*Prospect*
Absorbing ... One of the most amazing qualities of this novel [is]:
We know how everything here turns out -we’ve known it for thousands
of years - and yet in Miller’s lush reimagining, the story feels
harrowing and unexpected. The feminist light she shines on these
events never distorts their original shape; it only illuminates
details we hadn’t noticed before… In the story that dawns from
Miller’s rosy fingers, the fate that awaits Circe is at once divine
and mortal, impossibility strange and yet entirely human
*Washington Post*
A look at mythology with fresh eyes ... In Circe the female
perspective sharpens into focus in a way that doesn’t happen in the
original
*Wall Street Journal*
Miller excels at reworking myths and legends for a modern audience
… Miller conjures up a cast of strong, relatable characters, from
cold-hearted gods and flawed heroes to deadly monsters-and best of
all-a strong female protagonist. Fabulously readable
*Scotsman*
Beautifully written throughout … Miller has broken [Circe] free of
the conventions of the masculine epic
*Literary Review*
A refreshingly complex and utterly compelling portrait of one of
the most intriguing women in western literature … Miller’s
depiction of what it feels like to work magic is extraordinarily
vivid and convincing … What elevates Circe is Miller’s luminous
prose, which is both enormously readable and evocative, and the way
in which she depicts the gulf between gods and mortals … Circe can
be part of that cycle of cruel and pointless conflict, or she can
choose to break it. In this unforgettable novel, Miller makes us
care about that magical, mythical choice
*Irish Times*
In Circe, Miller gives depth and history to the title character,
how it was she came to be on her island, and her struggles as an
independent woman. The “heroes” of Greek myths - the gods, Odysseus
and so on - get shoved to the side, as Miller brings to the
forefront a fascinating, captivating female character. This is
wonderfully detailed and well worth the more than five year wait
since The Song of Achilles
*Stylist, The 20 must-read books to make room for in 2018*
A mesmerising, fiercely feminist and lyrical retelling of a story
from Greek mythology – as enchanting as the enchantress herself
*Psychologies*
Circe is the utterly captivating, exquisitely written story of an
ordinary, and extraordinary, woman's life
*Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing*
An epic spanning thousands of years that's also a
keep-you-up-all-night page turner
*Ann Patchett*
Horror, heartache and grit pour from the pages of this exquisitely
written and compelling novel. An alchemist with words, Miller
continues to rejuvenate the classics with her exceptional talent …
Circe is one of the best and most rewarding books of 2018
*Attitude, 'Book of the Month'*
Gives Greek mythology a modern, feminist twist
*Elle*
Miller weaves an intoxicating tale of gods and heroes, magic and
monsters, survival and transformation
*i*
Gorgeously written ... It leaves you thinking about it for
weeks
*Grazia*
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