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Circe by Madeline Miller
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Circe (original 2018; edition 2018)

by Madeline Miller

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12,342476511 (4.27)580
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.… (more)
Member:Aerrin99
Title:Circe
Authors:Madeline Miller
Info:2018
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Circe by Madeline Miller (2018)

2023 (28)
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English (453)  Italian (5)  Spanish (3)  German (2)  Hungarian (2)  Dutch (2)  French (1)  All languages (468)
Showing 1-5 of 453 (next | show all)
I was brought up on Greek myths. I knew the lot, and read and re-read them constantly (I was a Latin teacher's daughter, after all). So I was half looking forward to, half wary of this book. Would it be a re-hash , and disrespectful one at that, of some of my favourite stories?

Well, no. Miller is steeped in these legends, as I was. But she has considered them, and thought how it might actually feel to be a god, a nymph, and above all a woman in Ancient Greek and Olympian society.

Circe, immortal Circe tells her story through the hundreds of years of her life. She's known Prometheus; Daedalus and Icarus; Ariadne and the Minotaur; Jason of Golden Fleece fame, and most importantly, Odysseus, and has stories about all of them. She herself, a bit of a misfit to Helios, her sun god father and her naiad mother, is eventually exiled to the uninhabited island of Aeaea, where she discovers and then hones her skills as a witch. We witness her growing independence; her satisfactions as she develops her spells; her joys and loneliness. She takes lovers as they come her way, but never abandons herself to them: self-protection matters. She's to some extent realistic about their - and her faults, but is to a large extent blind to the shortcomings of her next-to-last lover, Odysseus.

Her struggles with the powers of the gods, with those characters who come her way over the centuries are interesting psychological battles. Though in many ways the last section of the book, in which the story between herself, Penelope, Telemachus and her own son Telegonus resolves itself, is a little too neat: more contrived than I found the rest of the story.

I enjoyed this treatment of tales with which I was once familiar: their weaving into one satisfactory narrative. Most of all, I enjoyed the development of the character of loner, out-of-step Circe, all but outcast in her younger years, but growing to effective independence over the decades of her isolation from the world of the gods. ( )
  Margaret09 | Apr 15, 2024 |
Circe, a character from Mythology is represented here as a feminist heroine. Exiled and abandoned, she lives an independent life, defending herself against mortals and gods. Beautifully written.
I have to admit, I don't know a lot about Greek mythology. The book includes a "cast of characters", including Olympians, Titans, humans, and monsters. The book has inspired an interest in reading more about these characters! I also enjoyed listening to an interview with the author in which she describes her reasons for choosing to write about Circe, and also recommends further reading. ( )
  Chrissylou62 | Apr 11, 2024 |
It seems when I engage in anything to do with Greek Gods (university courses, tv shows, movies, video games, books) I think I should like it way more than I actually do. I don't know if it's the storytelling or that I'm sort of over it or if I've just heard the stories so many times yet still can't retain exactly who is God of what, only that they like to fight and fuck everything and are incredibly pompous.

I know this book received a lot of critical praise, but it didn't entirely work for me. It didn't help that we took a major break with about 20% to go or that the final section felt like it dragged on and on, while the first half was quite exciting. Perdita Weeks was a phenomenal audiobook narrator, she did a tremendous job and I don't think the book is poorly written, it just didn't click entirely for me. ( )
  hskey | Apr 10, 2024 |
Beautiful retelling. I love it when someone is able to help me have empathy for an immortal goddess. ( )
  pianistpalm91 | Apr 7, 2024 |
This is another 4.5 which, though an excellent book, doesn't quite make it to be utterly brilliant for me.

I've seen a few reviews treat Circe either as a 'retelling' or a 'reimagining', but I think it is more accurately a 'reinterpretation'. Miller has taken various elements of Classical Greek myth (which in themselves are often inconsistent and non-linear) and woven them together into an account of the heroic age told from an unexpected focal point.

Aside from the wonderful prose that she has carried over from The Song of Achilles, I think the thing that Miller does best is deal with the anthropomorphism of the Greek gods, and just how much (or little) they have in common with humans. While the account is already ‘unconventional’ in the sense of taking the perspective of a minor female goddess, it is also rare to have a story of this period where we get to see what it may have been like to be a deity. This exploration of the line between mortal and immortal, and how the strengths and weaknesses of each can manifest in the other, was immensely interesting for me.

The thing that kept it from a perfect score for me was the absence of a substantial plot. I was a decent portion through the book before I realised that this was going to essentially be a character study for Circe rather than a complete narrative, and while it works extremely well as such, the result is that the pacing is very jumpy, and some of the climactic moments felt less impactful than they should have been.

However, while this book won't be for those looking for an action driven and fast paced romp through Greek mythology, it is certainly a well written and thoughtfully considered portrayal of Circe, and engagingly sheds light on elements of that world that are generally passed over. ( )
  XavierDragnesi | Mar 31, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 453 (next | show all)
“Circe” will surely delight readers new to the witch’s stories as it will many who remember her role in the Greek myths of their childhood: Like a good children’s book, it engrosses and races along at a clip, eliciting excitement and emotion along the way.
 
Miller has taken the familiar materials of character, and wrought some satisfying turns of her own.
 
[W]hat elevates Circe is Miller’s luminous prose, which is both enormously readable and evocative, and the way in which she depicts the gulf between gods and mortals.
 
Written in prose that ripples with a gleaming hyperbole befitting the epic nature of the source material, there is nothing inaccessible or antiquated about either Circe or her adventures.
 
The character of Circe only occupies a few dozen lines of [the Odyssey], but Miller extracts worlds of meaning from Homer's short phrases.
 

» Add other authors (29 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Madeline Millerprimary authorall editionscalculated
Ciani, Maria GraziaAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Magrì, MarinellaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Staehle, WillCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Weeks, PerditaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Dedication
For Nathaniel
νόστος
First words
When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.
Quotations
“A happy man is too occupied with his life. He thinks he is beholden to no one. But make him shiver, kill his wife, cripple his child, then you will hear from him. He will starve his family for a month to buy you a pure-white yearling calf. If he can afford it, he will buy you a hundred.” “But surely,” I said, “you have to reward him eventually. Otherwise, he will stop offering.” “Oh, you would be surprised how long he will go on. But yes, in the end, it’s best to give him something. Then he will be happy again. And you can start over.”
This was how mortals found fame, I thought. Through practice and diligence, tending their skills like gardens until they glowed beneath the sun. But gods are born of ichor and nectar, their excellences already bursting from their fingertips. So they find their fame by proving what they can mar: destroying cities, starting wars, breeding plagues and monsters. All that smoke and savor rising so delicately from our altars. It leaves only ash behind.
Timidity creates nothing.
But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.
As it turned out, I did kill pigs that night after all.
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In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

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In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love. Amazon
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