Selected article

The Penelopiad is a novella by Margaret Atwood. It was published in 2005 as part of the first set of books in the Canongate Myth Series where contemporary authors rewrite ancient myths. In The Penelopiad, Penelope reminisces on the events during the Odyssey, life in Hades, Odysseus, Helen, and her relationships with her parents. A chorus of the twelve maids, whom Odysseus believed were disloyal and whom Telemachus hanged, interrupt Penelope's narrative to express their view on events. The maids' interludes use a new genre each time, including a jump-rope rhyme, a lament, an idyll, a ballad, a lecture, a court trial and several types of songs.

The novella's central themes include the effects of story-telling perspectives, double standards between the genders and the classes, and the fairness of justice. Atwood had previously used characters and storylines from Greek mythology in fiction such as her novel The Robber Bride, short story The Elysium Lifestyle Mansions and poems "Circe: Mud Poems" and "Helen of Troy Does Counter Dancing" but used Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths and E. V. Rieu and D. C. H. Rieu's version of the Odyssey to prepare for this novella.

The book was translated into 28 languages and released simultaneously around the world by 33 publishers. In the Canadian market, it peaked on the best seller lists at number one in MacLean's and number two in The Globe and Mail, but did not place on the New York Times Best Seller List in the American market. Some critics found the writing to be typical of Atwood, even amongst her finest work, while others found some aspects, like the chorus of maids, disagreeable. A theatrical version was co-produced by the Canadian National Arts Centre and the British Royal Shakespeare Company. The play was performed at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa during the summer and fall of 2007 by an all-female cast led by director Josette Bushell-Mingo.

Selected novel quote

• "You know that song 'If a body catch a body comin' through the rye'? I'd like — "
  "It's 'If a body meet a body coming through the rye'!" old Phoebe said. "It's a poem. By Robert Burns."
  "I know it's a poem by Robert Burns."
  She was right, though. It is "If a body meet a body coming through the rye." I didn't know it then, though.
  "I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,'" I said. "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."

The Catcher in the Rye

Did you know?

• ... that the science fiction novel The Masks of Time by Robert Silverberg, which featured a naked time traveler from the future, was a nominee for the 1969 Nebula Award?
• ... that in the fictional 1977 novel The Sword of Shannara, Shea Ohmsford is the only descendant of Jerle Shannara left in the Four Lands, and therefore the only one left who can use the Sword of Shannara?
• ... that Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated 1910–13 Antarctic expedition was the inspiration for two of Doris Lessing's novels, The Sirian Experiments and The Making of the Representative for Planet 8?
• ... that Jack Womack's 2000 alternate history novel Going, Going, Gone is set in two converging parallel versions of New York?
• ... that the Lord Peter Wimsey novel Thrones, Dominations was started by Dorothy L. Sayers in 1936 and completed by Jill Paton Walsh over 60 years later?
• ... that David Drake wrote his first novel, The Dragon Lord, after another author declined to develop the plot Drake had written?
• ... that the Beth Groundwater novel A Real Basket Case was nominated for the Best First Novel Agatha Award in 2007?
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