July 21, 2026
Provided image/Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
Emily Wilson, above, was the first woman to translate Homer's 'The Odyssey' into English.
IMAX movie tickets and Trojan horse-shaped popcorn buckets aren't the only commodities benefiting from the success of "The Odyssey." The big-screen adaptation of the Homer classic has also piqued interest in a recent translation from a University of Pennsylvania professor.
Emily Wilson debuted her interpretation of the ancient epic in 2017 to strong reviews and countless internet thinkpieces. Nine years later, she's experiencing another swarm of publicity amid the release of the star-studded "Odyssey" film — directed by one of her readers, Christopher Nolan. Wilson's publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, said sales of her paperback have spiked nearly 40% since last year, and show no signs of slowing down.
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W.W. Norton initially saw a "significant increase" in sales of Wilson's translation in all formats after the movie was announced in December 2024. But by July 2 of this year, the company said, the numbers surged again and surpassed their 2025 benchmarks. All-time domestic sales of the book now have surpassed over 1 million copies — a pretty impressive feat for a scholar of classical studies.
The translation also has rocketed up the bestseller lists of major retailers. As of Tuesday afternoon, it ranked No. 11 on Barnes & Noble's website and No. 3 on Amazon.
Wilson, who attended an early screening of the film last week, had some notes for Nolan. She told the Associated Press that she felt the director "was trying to pack everything in while missing themes that were essential to the poem," mentioning the absence of the Greek gods Zeus and Poseidon and Nolan's added emphasis on Odysseus's dog Argos.
Still, she was cheered by how many people were engaging with the poem and said readers should "absolutely go" see it in theaters.
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