Download The Song Of Achilles [PDF] By Madeline Miller

The Song Of Achilles book pdf download for free or read online, also The Song Of Achilles pdf was written by Madeline Miller.

Madeline Miller (born July 24, 1978) is an American novelist, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe. Miller spent ten years writing The Song of Achilles while working as a Latin and Greek teacher. The novel tells the love story between the mythological figures Achilles and Patroclus; It won the Orange Prize for Fiction, making Miller the fourth debut author to win the award. In 2019 he received the Alex Awards.

Miller was born in Boston on July 24, 1978 and grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. After graduating from Brown University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Classics (2000 and 2001, respectively), Miller continued to teach Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare to high school students. He also earned his PhD from the University of Chicago Committee on Social Thought for one year and from the Yale School of Drama from 2009 to 2010 for an MFA in Playwriting and Dramatic Criticism. As of May 2012, Miller resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she taught and wrote.

Miller told a Guardian reporter that her inspirations include David Mitchell, Lorrie Moore, Anne Carson and Virgil.

Miller expressed “hatred” and “visceral disgust” toward Ayn Rand’s book The Fountainhead. As she herself has indicated, she hates the “ideas behind it”. Instead, he prefers books by James Herriot and Chinua Achebe.

The Song Of Achilles Book PDF download for free

A tale of gods, kings, immortal glory and the human heart. The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reinterprets Homer’s enduring masterpiece, the Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a beautifully conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s epic debut novel has already received overwhelming praise from some of the brightest minds in contemporary literature and Mary Renault fans. , Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight you with this unforgettable journey to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.

The Song Of Achilles Book Pdf Download

For better or for worse, the Homeric epics are a fundamental part of the Western literary canon. Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles takes a new perspective on the Iliad: that of Patroclus, Achilles’ closest companion.

Since this is a retelling of a classic story (a genre I’m predisposed to), we already know how it will play out: Agamemnon will steal a slave girl claimed by Achilles, causing the hero to refuse, for the Greeks to fight, which leads to Patroclus donning his armor and being killed by Hector of Troy, leading Achilles to kill Hector and march across his city walls, only to be himself killed by an arrow from Hector’s brother Paris. What comes before and in between is different.

As most of us know, in ancient Greek life it was not uncommon for older men to have sex with younger men. However, homosexual relationships between men of the same age were less common. Even in college, when I was taught the Iliad, the connection between Patroclus and Achilles was usually described as a deep friendship (the idea that they might have been lovers was discussed, but that was never taught as the most convincing interpretation) .

However, Miller’s novel is based on the alternative interpretation: it presents us with Achilles, the most talented warrior in Greece, as a man in a loving and stable lifelong relationship with Patroclus.

In fact, it would be more accurate to say that it introduces us to Patroclus as Achilles’ romantic partner: the story belongs to Patroclus, it is told through his eyes. Created by Miller, Patroclus is a gentle soul, a disappointment to his aggressive father, who is banished when he accidentally kills another child. He is sent for adoption to Peleus, Achilles’ father, and Achilles chooses him from among all the youths at court to be his companion.

Their relationship only gradually becomes romantic, much to the chagrin of Achilles’ mother Thetis, the river goddess. She conspires more than once to break up the couple, but their love is too strong and they stay together to the end. Miller explains that Achilles’ anger at his slave’s theft was not because he was deprived of a lover, but because he was disrespected as the best soldier in the army, having his rightly claimed prize taken away from him.

I found it to be a much nicer version of the story than the original. Miller really takes the time to develop Patroclus and Achilles as characters, portraying them from childhood through adulthood. She paints a very devoted relationship between them: although they both briefly experiment with sex with women, they never leave each other and Achilles, despite strong maternal pressure, refuses to leave Patroclus.

Since Miller’s Patroclus is not a skilled or enthusiastic warrior and instead serves as a healer to the Greek contingent at Troy, most of the battlefield scenes that I find so boring are left out entirely. This is a solid read for fans of historical fiction and/or classic fiction.

When my book club member picked up The Song of Achilles, I read the synopsis and was afraid that the beginning would be difficult, let alone the ending. And while I love to read, this didn’t seem like a book I picked or enjoyed. Yes, I do like movies 300 and Gladiator, but was I really ready to voluntarily enter the world of the Trojan War? Guess what?

I did it and I really liked it. The language was not difficult to understand, and the novel was not written in such a way that passages had to be read over and over again. The writing was easy (of course I stumbled across some of the names) and full of new and imaginative plot options. We see the rise and fall of Achilles through the eyes of his partner/lover Patroclus.

The exiled Prince Patroclus meets Achilles when he is sent to live with King Peleus. Achilles is the son of Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis. Achilles is confident, handsome, fearless, not to mention destined for great things. Clumsy, clumsy and shy, Patroclus is everything that Achilles is not. When Achilles chooses Patroclus as his companion, everyone is shocked and dismayed. We soon get to follow their growing relationship from boy to grown man and friend to lover.

Eventually they are sent to train with Chiron (half horse/half human/centaur) until Achilles is sent (on his mother’s orders) to hide (as a woman) in another realm. There he secretly marries the princess and fathers a son. Patroclus finds him and sends her off to war (Paris took Helen to Troy and will not return her). This is Achilles’ opportunity to show and prove his greatness.

They play for 10 years (even overcoming a plague) at the gates of Troy. And then, after an insult to his reputation (the greedy King Agamemnon tried to reclaim one of his possessions, Briseis, whom he saved only to appease Patroclus), Achilles refuses to fight until he receives an apology, even though it means several her people will die. Without their greatest warrior, they are doomed.

Patroclus even tries to reason with the Achilles, but to no avail. In an attempt to make things better (among the people), restore Achilles’ reputation, and help win the war, Patroclus embarks on a foolish errand to attack the gates of Troy. Unfortunately, he is killed by Hector (arch-enemy of Achilles). Wracked with grief (and much guilt), Achilles sets out to avenge Patroclus’ death. He is not going to stop until he gets his revenge by killing Hector. And while he achieves his goals, he too is killed (by Paris with the help of Apollo).

What I liked:

1. While you might think that Achilles is the hero or what the story is about, it’s actually Patroclus who loved him unconditionally despite his flaws. Yes, Achilles was handsome, musically gifted (lyre) and a skilled warrior, but he was also aloof and difficult at times. And although Patroclus saw his mistakes, he still loved him. Eventually he even gave his life to ensure Achilles was unharmed.
2. The dynamics between Achilles, his mother Thetis and Patroclus. While Thetis never thought Patroclus was good enough for her son and never understood his love, it was their life story and their love for each other that ultimately softened his outer shell (well, sort of). He understood that Patroclus loved his son.
3. The Story of Briseis. Her words of love for Patroclus and her willingness to stay with him forever, even if it meant sharing him with Achilles, were just beautiful. Not to mention that she ended up dying on her own terms, refusing to be reclaimed (by Agamemnon) or enslaved.
4. The Wrath of Achilles. He could imagine how Achilles felt as he walked around the gates of Troy, dragging Hector’s body behind him. I understood his pain and felt sympathy when he refused to give Priam the remains of his son Hector. And I could imagine Achilles leaning over and tending the remains of Patroclus, hoping that he would wake up or be resurrected.
5. The death of Achilles. It was beautifully written. “He turns his head a little as if to see it coming. He closes his eyes and feels its tip poking through his skin, splitting thick muscles and warming through the intertwined fingers of his ribs.” After avenging the death of the one he loved, he had nothing left he could live. He didn’t wanted to live in a world without his soulmate.

I’m undecided on:

1. The hasty conclusion. I really would have liked to see more of Pyrrhus reign. I found it ironic that unlike Achilles (who was raised by his mortal father and Chiron), his son Pyrrhus was allowed to grow and develop under Thetis. She believed Achilles’ humanity made him vulnerable, so she was curious to see if this opportunity to breed a different version of Achilles would make a difference. Although Pyrrhus was a great warrior and strategist, he was cold, authoritarian, selfish, and petty. The opposite of Achilles who was aloof but capable of love and yet both suffered the same fate. None were destined to live forever. Oddly enough, Achilles’ son died for the same affront (claiming or kidnapping a woman) that caused Achilles to stop fighting.

In closing, I’ve just touched on a few things about the book in this review. But rest assured, there are many things that made this a fascinating read. There was romance, betrayal, war, passion (because there is a difference between romance and passion), tragedy and good old Greek mythology.

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