The Penelopiad (Myths) - Softcover

Half-Dorothy Parker, half-Desperate Housewives. * * Independent * * As potent as a curse. -- Lucy Hughes Hallett * * Sunday Times * * Atwood takes Penelope's part with tremendous verve...she explores the very nature of mythic story-telling. -- Mary Beard * * Guardian * * Atwood's typical wit and vim on fine display: with the late maids providing a Greek chorus, Penelope swoops across the centuries to pithily slate her cousin Helen of Troy, judge Odysseus and even provide a feminist viewpoint of which Homer could nary have dreamt. * * Observer * * Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine. -- Sam Leith * * Spectator * *

When Odysseus goes off to fight the Trojan war, his wife Penelope manages to keep over a hundred suitors at bay. When Odysseus comes home, he kills her suitors and - curiously - twelve of her maids.