The Penelopiad

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The Penelopiad
Book cover of the first U.K. edition
Author	Margaret Atwood
Country	Canada
Language	English
Series	Canongate Myth Series
Genre(s)	Parallel novel
Publisher	Knopf Canada
Publication date	October 11, 2005
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	216 pp
ISBN	ISBN 067697418X

The Penelopiad is a 2005 parallel novel by Margaret Atwood, and one of the first books to be published in the Canongate Myth Series, a book series in which ancient myths are rewritten by contemporary authors. The story takes an alternative view of the story of Odysseus by focusing on Odysseus's wife, Penelope, and her twelve handmaids. Most of the novel follows Penelope's struggle when Odysseus takes twenty years to return from Troy.

Using material from The Odyssey combined with present-day sources, Atwood tells of how Penelope waited twenty years for Odysseus to return, giving clues as to what she did to evade the suitors: did she collude with the maids to evade them, or did she herself fall for the suitors, betray Odysseus, and, when he returned, get the maids killed to save herself?

The novel, like Greek drama, uses a chorus: the twelve maids, sometimes playing Odysseus's sailors; sometimes characters in a 21st-century trial of Odysseus, for killing the suitors and them; mostly as themselves, minor characters in a story controlled by more important people.

Contents 1 Background 2 Style 3 Reception 4 Publication 5 Theatrical adaptation 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Background

Publisher Jamie Byng of Canongate Books solicited author Margaret Atwood to write a novella re-telling a classic myth. Byng explained it would be published simultaneously in several languages as part of an international project. Atwood agreed to participate, believing she was helping a rising young publisher.^[1] From her home in Toronto, Atwood made attempts at writing the Norse creation myth and a Native American story but struggled.^[2] After speaking with her British literary agent about canceling her contract, Atwood began thinking about the Odyssey.^[1] She had first read it as a teenager and remembered finding the imagery of Penelope’s 12 maids being hanged in the denouement disturbing. Atwood believed that the roles of Penelope and her maids during Odysseus' absence had been a largely neglected scholarly topic and that she could use help address it with this project.^[2] E. V. Rieu and D.C.H. Rieu's translation of the Odyssey and Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths were used for research and Atwood wrote the novella in 2004–2005.^[3][4]

[edit] Style

The novella is divided into 29 chapters with Introduction, Notes and Acknowledgements sections. The storytelling alternates between Penelope’s narrative and the choral commentary of the 12 maids. It is structured similar to a classical Greek drama.^[5] Penelope narrates 18 chapters with the Chorus using 11 chapters dispersed throughout the book to relate their story. The Chorus uses a new narrative style in each of their chapters, beginning with a jump-rope rhyme and ending in a 17-line iambic dimeter poem. Other narrative styles used by the Chorus include a lament, a folk song, an idyll, a sea shanty, a ballad, a drama, an anthropology lecture, a court trial, and a love song.

Penelope’s story uses simple and deliberately naive prose.^[6] Because she contrasts past events as they occurred from her perspective with the elaborations of Odysseus and with what is recorded in myths today, she is described as a metafictional narrator.^[7] The book uses the first-person narrative, though Penelope sometimes addresses the reader through the second person pronoun.^[8] The tone is described as "street-wise" by one reviewer.^[9] Atwood’s characteristic bittersweet and melancholic feminist voice^[9] with dry humour portray Penelope as "an intelligent woman who knows better than to exhibit her intelligence".^[10]

[edit] Reception

On best seller lists in the Canadian market, the novel peaked at #1 in MacLean's and #2 in The Globe and Mail in the hardcover fiction category. In the American market the book did not place on the New York Times Best Seller list but was listed as an "Editors' Choice".^[11] The book was nominated for the 2006 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature and long-listed for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.^[12][13] The book's French translation was nominated at the 2006 Governor General's Literary Awards for best English to French translation.^[14]

Some reviewers like Christopher Tayler and David Flusfeder, both writing for The Daily Telegraph, praised the book as "enjoyable, [and] intelligent"^[15] with "Atwood at her finest".^[16] Robert Wiersema also calls this "Atwood at her finest" and adds that the book shows Atwood as "fierce and ambitious, clever and thoughtful".^[17] The review in the National Post calls the book "a brilliant tour de force".^[18] Specifically singled out as being good are the book's wit, rhythm, structure, and story.^[16][17][19] Mary Beard found the book to be "brilliant" except for the chapter entitled "An Anthropology Lecture" which she called "complete rubbish".^[20] Others criticized the book as being "merely a riff on a better story that comes dangerously close to being a spoof"^[21] and saying it "does not fare well [as a] colloquial feminist retelling".^[22] Specifically, the scenes with the chorus of maidservants are said to be "mere outlines of characters"^[21] with Elizabeth Hand writing in The Washington Post that they have "the air of a failed Monty Python sketch".^[23] In the journal English Studies, Odin Dekkers and L. R. Leavis call the book "a piece of deliberate self-indulgence" and compare it to "Wendy Cope’s limericks on The Waste Land" and say that it reads like an "over-the-top W. S. Gilbert".^[24]

[edit] Publication

The hardcover version of The Penelopiad was published on 21 October 2005 as part of the launch of the Canongate Myth Series, which also included A History of Myth by Karen Armstrong and a third title chosen by each publisher (most chose Weight by Jeanette Winterson).^[25] The Penelopiad was translated into 28 languages and released simultaneously around the world by 33 publishers,^[23] including Canongate Books in the UK, Knopf in Canada, Grove/Atlantic Inc. in the US, and Text Publishing in Australia and New Zealand. The French translation was published in Canada by Éditions du Boréal and in France by Groupe Flammarion.^[26] The trade paperback was released in 2006. Laural Merlington narrated the 3-hour unabridged audiobook which was published by Brilliance Audio and released along side the hardcover. Merlington's narration was positively received, though sometimes upstaged by the unnamed actresses voicing the maids.^[27]

[edit] Theatrical adaptation

Following a successful dramatic reading directed by Phyllida Lloyd at St James's Church, Piccadilly on October 26, 2005, Atwood finished a draft theatrical script.^[28] The Canadian National Arts Centre and the British Royal Shakespeare Company expressed interest and both agreed to co-produce. Funding was raised mostly from 9 Canadian women, dubbed the "Penelope Circle", who each donated CAD$50,000 to the National Arts Centre.^[29][30] An all-female cast was selected consisting of 7 Canadian and 6 British actors, with Josette Bushell-Mingo directing and Veronica Tennant as the choreographer.^[31] For music a trio, consisting of percussions, keyboard, and cello, were positioned above the stage. They assembled in Stratford-upon-Avon and rehearsed in June and July 2007.^[32] The 100-minute play was staged at the Swan Theatre between July 27 and August 18 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa between September 17 and October 6. Atwood’s script gave little stage direction allowing Bushell-Mingo to develop the action. Critics in both countries lauded Penny Downie’s performance as Penelope, but found the play had too much narration of story rather than dramatization.^[33][34] Adjustments made between productions resulted in the Canadian performance having more emotional depth that was found lacking in Bushell-Mingo’s direction of the 12 maids.^[35][36]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• National Arts Centre's page on "The Penelopiad"
• Blog of "The Penelopiad" actress Kate Hennig chronicling production of the theatrical adaption