About this episode

This episode explores the impact of Homer's Odyssey on English literature and discusses its recent film adaptation by Christopher Nolan.

We’re in another SLoB code red. Only months after Wuthering Heights smashed onto our screens, Christopher Nolan is here for the blockbuster event of the season, taking the one of the oldest and still greatest epics of all time - Homer’s Odyssey - and giving it what it always lacked. That is to say: Matt Damon.  And not just Matt Damon, but Zendaya, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Travis Scott, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton - and the list goes on. Basically, if you’re an actor and NOT in this film, it’s like discovering you’re the only one in class not invited to a party.  If you’re feeling daunted by the scale and import of both this film and the source material - don’t worry. SLoB is here to help you. We’ve donned our scrubs once again. We’ve got our critical defibrillators, suction devices and valve masks and we’re going to deliver you to the cinema ready to take on Homer and Nolan’s Odyssey.  We’ve republished the episode we did early in SloB on the Odyssey with Mary Beard. In this episode, we’re going to look at how the Odyssey shaped English literature in a portmanteau episode that will encompass everyone from Shakespeare…

More episodes of Secret Life of Books

• The Odyssey 4: Christopher Nolan's Odyssey review · July 21, 2026 · 59 min
• The Odyssey 3: Tennyson's Ulysses · July 14, 2026 · 1h 21m
• The Odyssey 1: Mary Beard on Homer’s masterpiece · July 6, 2026 · 57 min
• The Declaration of Independence at 250 · June 30, 2026 · 1h 16m
• TS Eliot 2: The Waste Land · June 23, 2026 · 1h 21m
• TS Eliot 1: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock · June 16, 2026 · 1h 12m

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