The late Samuel Butler's whimsical book, The Authoress of the
Odyssey, and his interesting prose version of The Odyssey have at last reached 'their second editions, and are issued in neat octavo volumes uniform with the new editions of his other works (Jonathan Cape, '7a. 6d. net each). Mr. Henry Festing Jones in a lengthy preface to the first book reminds us that Butler's attention was drawn to the Odyssey by his discovery that Charles Lamb had translated part of it, or, rather, had adapted Chapman's version. He conceived the idea that the poem was the work of a woman in 1891, and published his book in 1897. " He was disappointed by the silence of the orthodox." Iedeed, Mr. Festing Jones thinks that Butler's obsession with the question of the Odyssey " tended to shorten his life." Yet the average classical scholar probably believes that Butler was trying to pull his leg, though the book is ostensibly serious to a fault.
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