For Penelope, wife of Odysseus, maintaining a kingdom while her husband was off fighting the Trojan war was not a simple business. Already aggrieved that he had been lured away due to the shocking behaviour of her beautiful cousin Helen, Penelope must bring up her wayward son, face down scandalous rumours and keep over a hundred lustful, greedy and bloodthirsty suitors at bay... And then, when Odysseus finally returns and slaughters the murderous suitors, he brutally hangs Penelope's twelve beloved maids. What were his motives? And what was Penelope really up to? Critically acclaimed when it was first published as part of Canongate's Myth series, and following a very successful adaptation by the RSC, this new edition of The Penelopiad sees Margaret Atwood give Penelope a modern and witty voice to tell her side of the story, and set the record straight for good.

In Homer’s account in The Odyssey , Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy—is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan war after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumours, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged Maids, asking: ‘What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?’ In Atwood’s dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing With wit and verve, drawing on the storytelling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality—and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery.

SUMMARY:The internationally acclaimed Myths series brings together some of the finest writers of our time to provide a contemporary take on some of our most enduring stories. Here, the timeless and universal tales that reflect and shape our livesmirroring our fears and desires, helping us make sense of the worldare revisited, updated, and made new. Margaret Atwood'sPenelopiadis a sharp, brilliant and tender revision of a story at the heart of our culture:the myths about Penelope and Odysseus. In Homer's familiar version,The Odyssey,Penelope is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes to fight in the Trojan Wars, she manages to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son and, in the face of scandalous rumours, keep over a hundred suitors at bay. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters and sleeping with goddesses, he kills Penelope's suitors andcuriouslytwelve of her maids. In Homer the hanging of the maids merits only a fleeting though poignant mention, but Atwood comments in her introduction that she has always been haunted by those deaths.The Penelopiad, she adds,begins with two questions: what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? In the book, these subjects are explored by Penelope herselftelling the story from Hades the Greek afterworld-in wry, sometimes acid tones. But Penelope's maids also figure as a singing and dancing chorus (and chorus line),commenting on the action in poems, songs, an anthropology lecture and even a videotaped trial. The Penelopiaddoes several dazzling things at once. First, it delves into a moment of casual brutality and reveals all that the act contains: a practice of sexual violence and gender prejudice our society has not outgrown. But it is also a daring interrogation of Homer's poem, and its counter-narratives which draw on mythic material not used by Homer-cleverly unbalance the original. This is the case throughout, from the unsettling questions that drive Penelope's tale forward, to more comic doubts about some ofThe Odyssey's most famous episodes. ("Odysseus had been in a fight with a giant one-eyed Cyclops, said some; no, it was only a one-eyed tavern keeper, said another, and the fight was over non-payment of the bill.") In fact,The Penelopiadweaves and unweaves the texture ofThe Odysseyin several searching ways.The Odysseywas originally a set of songs, for example; the new version's ballads and idylls complement and clash with the original. Thinking more about theme, the maids' voices add a new and unsettling complex of emotions that is missing from Homer.The Penelopiadtakes what was marginal and brings it to the centre, where one can see its full complexity. The same goes for its heroine. Penelope is an important figure in our literary culture, but we have seldom heard her speak for herself. Her sometimes scathing comments inThe Penelopiad(about her cousin, Helen of Troy, for example) make us think of Penelope differently and the way she talks about the twenty-first century, which she observes from Hades, makes us see ourselves anew too. Margaret Atwood is an astonishing storyteller, andThe Penelopiadis, most of all, a haunting and deeply entertaining story. This book plumbs murder and memory, guilt and deceit, in a wise and passionate manner. At time hilarious and at times deeply thought-provoking, it is very much a Myth for our times. From the Hardcover edition.