Circe

great quality! its a little bit small though...

A great story but a slow buildup

I made a mistake ordering this book. I was expecting for the edition with bigger fonts.

Smaller than expected (always the same mistake with never reading the description)

I asked for paperback and it came smaller than expected. The font is too small!

The book is very small and the font is very small I cannot read it.

Print so small I can’t read it. Different book cover than advertised.

Madeline Miller's second novel is the story of Circe, daughter of the sun god Helios - Circe who turned the nymph Scylla into a monster with dogs springing from her thighs, and Odysseus' men into swine. But the Circe portrayed here is not the devilish temptress of popular legend. Scorned by the gods for having a voice and eyes 'like a mortal's', Circe grows up neglected in her father's hall, and longing for love. She thinks she has found it with Glaucos, a mortal fisherman who through magic she renders divine. But when Glaucos rejects her for the callous nymph Scylla, she takes drastic revenge. Horrified by what she has done - which turns out far worse than planned - Circe confesses her sins and is banished for all eternity to the island of Aiaia. And - other than a short journey to Crete to witness her sister Pasiphae give birth to the Minotaur - there she remains for centuries, until the wanderer Odysseus arrives and changes her life forever...This is a much better book than Miller's debut 'The Song of Achilles', which despite some lovely passages seemed to be constantly trying to impose a 21st-century outlook on an ancient tale. A good deal of the writing is beautiful - the descriptions of Aiaia and Circe's tame beasts, the dialogue between Circe and Odysseus, the depiction of Circe's final attainment of intimacy. I like the way that Miller - unlike some contemporary writers on the classics - isn't afraid to include the gods and magic as key parts of her story. She's also very clever in getting in references to and characters from famous myths, as in Circe's trip to Crete (where she not only encounters the Minotaur, Pasiphae and Ariadne, but also has an affair with Daedalus) and the arrival of Jason and Medea on Aiaia. Circe is an intriguing and ultimately likeable heroine, and some of the other characters are powerfully and sympathetically depicted, among them the clever craftsman Daedalus, the wise and stoical Penelope and her gentle son Telemachus, and best of all, the cunning Odysseus. And impressively for a story largely set in a single location, Miller maintains the reader's interest from first to last - and gives her tale a satisfying ending.I stop short of five stars as there were a few elements of the story that I didn't enjoy so much. I find Miller's portrayal of the gods too simplistically hostile - Athena, for example, is surely a more complex and sympathetic figure than she is portrayed here. It's a personal thing, but I didn't always like the version of myths that Miller chose: for example, I'm sorry she opted to have Ariadne killed by Artemis rather than become the consort of Dionysus, and am not sure why she turned Scylla into a squid-like monster rather than keep her iconic dog's heads. I found myself wondering at times while reading if Circe came across as a little too benign - had Miller focussed a little more on her overcoming her flaws, it might have made the story even more interesting. And - as with Natalie Haynes's 'A Thousand Ships - I think it's a shame than in her eagerness to produce a 'feminist' reworking of Greek myths, Miller ends up portraying important male characters in a very negative light. In particular, I found her depiction of Odysseus' later years - when he appears to be suffering some form of PTSD - rather depressing and felt this cunning hero deserved a better end. Still, at least Daedalus, Telemachus and - up to a point - Telegonus were appealing examples of good men.'Circe' may not be a 'perfect' reworking of Greek myth - if such a thing can be attained. But it is compelling, extremely readable, full of interesting characters and at best beautifully written - a big leap forward from Miller's debut. Apparently her third book may be a reworking of either the 'Aeneid' or Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. Whichever she chooses, I am keen to read it.

Do you ever read something and wonder why on earth everyone else loved it? Maybe it was just not my genre at all, I’ll admit I don’t know anything about classics/mythology etc... but I read a few chapters and found it such a harsh, strange world that I just couldn’t picture or imagine in my head at all, with no descriptions offered that would help to draw you in. It’s just a weird weird book, and there is nothing in the story/world/characters to relate to/connect with, and it felt so unenjoyable to read that a few chapters in I literally couldn’t go on any further. If you’re looking for an enjoyable/beautiful story to read then please be warned this is not it.

Let me come out and say it, Madeline Miller has a way with words that knows no equal. She has the uncanny ability to write a tale that is both a timeless classic and an approachable story at the same time. If you had told me this novel had been written thousands of years ago, during the days when Zeus himself walked our earth, I would have believed you. If you had told me Circe lived on a small island in the Mediterranean sea right now, I wouldn’t argue either.The story has all the gravitas of Greek mythology, without the cumbersome language. It is a story as the bards would have sung it, without the needless embellishments. Our narrator does not shy away from hurt and misfortune. Our hero is not an infallible being, favoured by the gods, the chosen one who will prevail against all odds.Our hero is a woman scorn. A woman who has never fit in amongst her closest relations. With one foot in the world of divinity and the other firmly rooted amongst mortals. Circe’s is a tale of self-exploration. Circe’s is a tale of will. Circe’s is a tale of persistence.What is perhaps most interesting about the story is its narrative. No longer is Circe a character thrown into the mix to aid and build the credentials of our heroes. To deify Jason and Odysseus. A minor inconvenience in the epic of men, a plotline, a throwaway character with no agency of her own.No more. Circe is a woman who has done unspeakable things. Who has created monsters who have haunted her humanity. Who has been failed by those around her with lofty goals and spiteful ambitions. She is bullied, belittled and cast aside. She is lonely, harsh and unforgiven. Through all of that, she finds her centre. She becomes the powerful witch of Aiaia. One who does not rule by taking away free will like her brother. Nor one who rules through fear and threat like her sister. She needs no subjects. She rules her island as she rules herself. Through will, through work.Another thing Madeline Miller has done expertly is showing the gods through Circe’s eyes. Of course, anyone who has read the barest about the Greek Pantheon knows most of them are flawed beyond measure. However, there always seem to be redeeming factors. Not for Circe. Not for the witch who has existed on the fringes of this cacophony. She undresses them for the reader. She leaves them exposed. She makes us question what we have learned as gospel. She makes us wonder if they are different from us at all. If they are not simply spiteful, power-hungry creatures after all.I honestly could keep gushing about this epos until I am hoarse, but I will leave it here. Suffice to say I highly recommend this story. Even if you weren’t a fan of Miller’s earlier work, don’t rob yourself of the pleasure of reading this story.

The book arrived quickly in good condition. The only issue is the actual story is so dull and boring, maybe it's just not my thing but after reading so many reviews I thought it would be great, but unfortunately not my cup of tea. The story takes too long to get into and they all have fancy names you don't know how to pronounce so just end up making up the names how I think they should sound most of the time, bit of a slog to get through with not much going on. Not one for me.

When I started reading I fell in love with Miller's style of writing. Beautiful imagery and evocative phrasing that made the prose almost poetic. However, as the book went on I became fatigued, I felt the story could have been shorter than it was and a lot of what was written was descriptive filler.Which some may love as it truly inmerses you in the world, but for me it became an exercise in skim reading, searching out the relevant plot points.I felt like a medieval monarch at a banquet, in awe of the wondrous cockatrice served up for me, but despite its beautiful and carefully constructed decoration, all I really wanted to do was get down to the meat of it.Having said that, Circe was a wonderfully female story, about one of the world's oldest witches. Power, grit, resilience, endurance, fortitude, sensuality, are just some of the qualities that are the essence of Circe and the universal female spirit.I recommend this book for Greek mythology connoisseurs and novices alike. For the former, they will find a classic tale given a modern makeover, in so far as it puts Circe at the heart of her story, humanising her and giving us the wicked but sympathetic heroine the mythology lacks. For the latter, Miller weaves in enough exposition and explaination that the myths never seem unfamiliar