Scholars were not deeply impressed by Samuel Butler's theories about
the Odyssey. He was known as an ironist, and it was difficult to treat him with entire seriousness. An air of paradox and michatwete seemed to hang over his con- tention that the Odyssey was written by a woman, by the daughter of the King of Trapani in Sicily—in fact, by the very original of Nausicaa. At last, however, he has found a scholar to support him. Mr. B. Farrington is the senior lecturer in classics at Capetown University ; and in his new book, Samuel Butler and the Odyssey (Cape, 3s. 6d.), he brings forward argu- ments in favour of all Butler's conclusions. His style is clear and vivacious. The book is a model of cumulative reasoning. Most readers will still be unwilling to accept the material points of Butler's thesis ; but, in any case, Mr. Farrington succeeds in concentrating our attention on those very real differences of outlook which distinguish the Odyssey from the Iliad.
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