Penélope y las doce criadas / The Penelopiad

RECOMENDADO POR JENNA BUSH EN SU CLUB DE LECTURA DEL TODAY SHOW Y EN SU PODCAST READ WITH JENNA

La autora de El cuento de la criada relata la Odisea desde el punto de vista de Penélope, ofreciendo el contrapunto feminista a la obra de Homero.

Penélope ha sido inmortalizada en mitos y leyendas como la devota esposa del glorioso Ulises, tejiendo y destejiendo silenciosamente una mortaja para su suegro, mientras espera el regreso de su marido. En un audaz e inspirado giro, Margaret Atwood cede a Penélope la voz narradora y nos conduce a la respuesta del misterioso episodio del ahorcamiento de las criadas en la Odisea. Ahora Penélope deambula por el inframundo, tejiendo otra trama: su propia versión de la historia, un relato de lujuria, avaricia, injusticia y asesinato. Una narración llena de sabiduría y humor que, con un elevado tono poético, reelabora uno de los mitos fundacionales de la literatura.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

• READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • RECOMMENDED ON THE ‘READ WITH JENNA’ PODCAST•

As portrayed in Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope – wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy – has become a symbol of wifely duty and devotion, enduring twenty years of waiting when her husband goes to fight in the Trojan War.

As she fends off the attentions of a hundred greedy suitors, travelling minstrels regale her with news of Odysseus’ epic adventures around the Mediterranean – slaying monsters and grappling with amorous goddesses. When Odysseus finally comes home, he kills her suitors and then, in an act that served as little more than a footnote in Homer’s original story, inexplicably hangs Penelope’s twelve maids. Now, Penelope and her chorus of wronged maids tell their side of the story in a new stage version by Margaret Atwood, adapted from her own wry, witty and wise novel.