LIBRARY NOTES
 
Video:
This event was a presentation of The New York Society Library
in cooperation with Thirteen/WNET and WLIW21.
The story of the Trojan War is immortalized in Homer's epic of epic poems, the Iliad, and brought to new life in Caroline Alexander's The War That Killed Achilles. Beyond the trial of Paris, the battle over Helen of Troy, and the incessant intervention of the gods lies a sincere tale of war. While Homer touches on only a few weeks of what is said to have taken ten years, Alexander brings to light the forgotten message behind the poem: the misery of war and the sacrifice and courage of its soldiers. Through the hero Achilles, the Iliad draws on the true nature of what it means to be a soldier, to fight a bloody conflict whose hallmarks are not honor and glory so much as deception, betrayal, petulance, pride, violence, and the inescapability of fate. The War That Killed Achilles is a poignant dissection of the epic poem relevant to all wars, past and present.
Caroline Alexander is the author of the international bestsellers
The Endurance and
The Bounty, and four other nonfiction books.
She has written for The New Yorker, Granta, Smithsonian, Outside, and National Geographic. She is also the writer and co-producer of the award-winning documentary The Endurance. Alexander studied philosophy and theology at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and has a doctorate in classics from Columbia University.
This event is part of the 2008-2009 Author Series, co-sponsored by the Library and Thirteen/WNET New York.
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