nytimes book review circe

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The original nasty woman is a goddess for our times

The archaeological evidence is sketchy, but the first pussy hat was probably knitted by Circe. Among nasty women, the witch of Aeaea has held a place of prominence since Homer first sang of her wiles. For most of us, that was a long time ago — 700 B.C. or freshman English — but popular interest in “The Odyssey” picked up last fall when Emily Wilson published the first English translation by a woman. Wilson, a classicist at the University of Pennsylvania, described Circe as “the goddess who speaks in human tongues” and reminded us that what makes this enchantress particularly dangerous is that she is as beautiful as she is powerful.

That combination of qualities has excited male desire and dread at least since Athena sprang from the head of Zeus. On papyrus or Twitter , from Olympus to Hollywood , we have a roster of handy slurs and strategies to keep women caught between Scylla and Charybdis: either frigid or slutty, unnaturally masculine or preternaturally sexless, Lady Macbeth or Mother Mary.

Now, into that ancient battle — reinvigorated in our own era by the #MeToo movement — comes an absorbing new novel by Madeline Miller called “ Circe .” In his 1726 translation of “The Odyssey,” Alexander Pope claimed that Circe possessed an “adamantine heart,” but Miller finds the goddess’s affections wounded, complicated and capable of extraordinary sympathy. And to anyone who thinks that women can be shamed into silence, this witch has just one thing to say: “That’ll do, pig.”

Miller is something of a literary sorceress herself. As a 39-year-old Latin teacher, she created an international sensation in 2011 with her debut novel, a stirring reimagining of “The Iliad” called “The Song of Achilles.” It’s a pleasure to see that same transformative power directed at Circe, the woman who waylaid Odysseus and his men as they sailed home to Ithaca.

The first English translation of ‘The Odyssey’ by a woman was worth the wait

“When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist,” Circe begins at the start of a story that will carry us across millennia. Although she writes in prose, Miller hews to the poetic timber of the epic, with a rich, imaginative style commensurate to the realm of immortal beings sparked with mortal sass. Circe’s father, Helios, lives in a palace of “polished obsidian . . . the stone floors smoothed by centuries of divine feet.” She describes a royal court just beyond the edge of physical possibility: “The whole world was made of gold. The light came from everywhere at once, his yellow skin, his lambent eyes, the bronze flashing of his hair. His flesh was hot as a brazier, and I pressed as close as he would let me, like a lizard to noonday rocks.”

In this fully re-created childhood, Miller finds the roots of Circe’s later personality and isolation. Mocked by her far more majestic family, Circe is a kind of Titanic Jane Eyre, sensitive and miserable, but nursing an iron will. (She also develops an acerbic sense of humor: Her father, she tells us, is “a harp with only one string, and the note it played was himself.”) Although her relatives disparage her, Circe cultivates the occult arts that will one day shock them. “I had begun to know what fear was,” she tells us. “What could make a god afraid? I knew that answer too. A power greater than their own.”

‘The Song of Achilles,’ by Madeline Miller

While working within the constraints of the “The Odyssey” and other ancient myths, Miller finds plenty of room to weave her own surprising story of a passionate young woman banished to lavish solitude. “To be utterly alone,” Circe scoffs. “What worse punishment could there be, my family thought, than to be deprived of their divine presence?” But her bravado is short-lived. “The still air crawled across my skin and shadows reached out their hands. I stared into the darkness, straining to hear past the beat of my own blood.” In that extremity, Circe discovers the labor and, eventually, the power of witchcraft.

A protagonist, even a fascinating one, stuck alone in the middle of nowhere poses special narrative challenges, but Miller keeps her novel filled with perils and romance. She’s just as successful recounting far-off adventures — such as the horror of the Minotaur — as she is reenacting adventures on the island. In the novel’s most unnerving encounter, young Medea stops by mid-honeymoon fresh from chopping up her brother. Chastened by bitter experience, Circe offers her niece wise counsel, but you know how well that turns out.

Which is one of the most amazing qualities of this novel: We know how everything here turns out — we’ve known it for thousands of years — and yet in Miller’s lush reimagining, the story feels harrowing and unexpected. The feminist light she shines on these events never distorts their original shape; it only illuminates details we hadn’t noticed before.

That theme develops long before Odysseus and his men arrive, as the novel explores the prevalence and presumption of rape. Again and again, sailors land upon Circe’s shore and violate her hospitality so grotesquely that she’s forced to develop her infamous potions and spells. “The truth is,” she says ruefully, “men make terrible pigs.” Considering the treatment she has received, we can’t blame her for concluding, “There were no pious men anymore, there had not been for a long time.”

Of course, her grim appraisal is a perfect introduction for Odysseus. He doesn’t arrive on Aeaea until more than halfway through the novel, but then Miller plays their verbal sparring with a delightful mix of wit and lust. The affection that eventually develops between them is intriguingly complex and mature — such a smart revision of the misogynist fantasy passed down from antiquity:

“Later, years later, I would hear a song made of our meeting,” Circe tells us. “I was not surprised by the portrait of myself: the proud witch undone before the hero’s sword, kneeling and begging for mercy. Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”

There will be plenty of weeping later in this novel, although it’s likely to be your own. In the story that dawns from Miller’s rosy fingers, the fate that awaits Circe is at once divine and mortal, impossibly strange and yet entirely human.

Ron Charles is the editor of Book World and host of TotallyHipVideoBookReview.com .

On April 18 at 7 p.m., Madeline Miller will be at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. politics-prose.com .

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Why the literature of antiquity still matters, by Michael Dirda

By Madeline Miller

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Book Reviews

'circe' gives the witch of the odyssey a new life.

Annalisa Quinn

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"Later, years later, I would hear a song made of our meeting," says the hero of Madeleine Miller's Circe , of her romance with the mortal Odysseus. Circe is referring to Homer's version of the story, in which Odysseus arrives on her island sea-battered and mourning for his men killed by the cruel Laestrygonians. Circe entraps his remaining men and turns them into pigs. But Odysseus, with the help of the god Hermes, tricks Circe and makes her beg for mercy before becoming her lover.

"I was not surprised by the portrait of myself," Circe says, "the proud witch undone before the hero's sword, kneeling and begging for mercy. Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime for poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep."

Miller's lush, gold-lit novel — told from the perspective of the witch whose name in Greek has echoes of a hawk and a weaver's shuttle -- paints another picture: of a fierce goddess who, yes, turns men into pigs, but only because they deserve it.

Though most of Circe's fame derives from her short encounter with Odysseus in Book 10 of the Odyssey, Miller's novel covers a longer and more complex life: her lonely childhood among the gods, her first encounter with mortals, who "looked weak as mushroom gills" next to the "vivid and glowing" divinities, the awakening of her powers, and finally, the men who wash up on her shores, souring her trust with their cruelty.

'Women & Power' Links Today's Trolls With Ancient Ancestors

In 'ODY-C,' A Greek Hero Worthy Of Women

Circe is a nymph, daughter of the sun god Helios, banished to the island of Aiaia for using magic to turn a romantic rival into the monster Scylla. Alone, she begins to hone her craft. "For a hundred generations, I have walked the world, drowsy and dull, idle and at my ease," she thinks. "Then I learned I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent for an arrow. I would have done that toil a thousand times to keep such power in my hands. I thought: this is how Zeus felt when he first lifted the thunderbolt."

A classics teacher, Miller is clearly on intimate terms with the Greek poem. The character of Circe only occupies a few dozen lines of it, but Miller extracts worlds of meaning from Homer's short phrases. For instance, Homer cryptically describes Circe as having a "human voice," leading centuries of readers to wonder: What is a divine voice? Do the gods have a language? Miller makes Circe's human voice the beginning of a (fraught, because inherently temporary) kinship with mortals that is one of the novel's loveliest strains.

But my favorite of Miller's small recalibrations is less lofty: It has to do with Circe's hairdo. In Homer, Circe is identified with her "lovely braids." The usual scholarly gloss on this is that the braids signal not only beauty, but also exoticism, because Eastern goddesses wore their hair in braids. But in Circe , the braids come about in the first moments of the goddess's magical awakening, when she begins roaming the island to find ingredients for her spells: "I learned to braid my hair back, so it would not catch on every twig, and how to tie my skirts at the knee to keep the burrs off." It's a small detail, but it's the difference between a person of independence and skill, and some male dream of danger, foreignness, and sex, lounging with parted lips while she watches the horizon for ships.

"We are not afraid of telling over and over again how a man comes to fall in love with a woman and be wedded to her, or else be fatally parted from her," wrote George Eliot in Middlemarch . Why, she asks, do we never hear of another kind of love, which also "must be wooed with industrious thought and patient renunciation of small desires" — a vocation? Circe insists that labor, as much as love, makes a life: "No wonder I have been so slow," she thinks when she discovers magic. "All this while, I have been a weaver without wool, a ship without the sea." This Circe braids her hair because she has work to do.

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Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2018

New York Times Bestseller

by Madeline Miller ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2018

Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters.

A retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch.

“Monsters are a boon for gods. Imagine all the prayers.” So says Circe, a sly, petulant, and finally commanding voice that narrates the entirety of Miller’s dazzling second novel. The writer returns to Homer, the wellspring that led her to an Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles (2012). This time, she dips into The Odyssey for the legend of Circe, a nymph who turns Odysseus’ crew of men into pigs. The novel, with its distinctive feminist tang, starts with the sentence: “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” Readers will relish following the puzzle of this unpromising daughter of the sun god Helios and his wife, Perse, who had negligible use for their child. It takes banishment to the island Aeaea for Circe to sense her calling as a sorceress: “I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open. I stepped into those woods and my life began.” This lonely, scorned figure learns herbs and potions, surrounds herself with lions, and, in a heart-stopping chapter, outwits the monster Scylla to propel Daedalus and his boat to safety. She makes lovers of Hermes and then two mortal men. She midwifes the birth of the Minotaur on Crete and performs her own C-section. And as she grows in power, she muses that “not even Odysseus could talk his way past [her] witchcraft. He had talked his way past the witch instead.” Circe’s fascination with mortals becomes the book’s marrow and delivers its thrilling ending. All the while, the supernatural sits intriguingly alongside “the tonic of ordinary things.” A few passages coil toward melodrama, and one inelegant line after a rape seems jarringly modern, but the spell holds fast. Expect Miller’s readership to mushroom like one of Circe’s spells.

Pub Date: April 10, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-316-55634-7

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018

LITERARY FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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THE NIGHTINGALE

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 3, 2015

Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.

Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.

In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring  passeurs : people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the  Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.

Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3

Page Count: 448

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014

HISTORICAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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BOOK REVIEW

by Kristin Hannah

BOOK TO SCREEN

HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Mark Z. Danielewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000

The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and...

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Texts within texts, preceded by intriguing introductory material and followed by 150 pages of appendices and related "documents" and photographs, tell the story of a mysterious old house in a Virginia suburb inhabited by esteemed photographer-filmmaker Will Navidson, his companion Karen Green (an ex-fashion model), and their young children Daisy and Chad.  The record of their experiences therein is preserved in Will's film The Davidson Record - which is the subject of an unpublished manuscript left behind by a (possibly insane) old man, Frank Zampano - which falls into the possession of Johnny Truant, a drifter who has survived an abusive childhood and the perverse possessiveness of his mad mother (who is institutionalized).  As Johnny reads Zampano's manuscript, he adds his own (autobiographical) annotations to the scholarly ones that already adorn and clutter the text (a trick perhaps influenced by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest ) - and begins experiencing panic attacks and episodes of disorientation that echo with ominous precision the content of Davidson's film (their house's interior proves, "impossibly," to be larger than its exterior; previously unnoticed doors and corridors extend inward inexplicably, and swallow up or traumatize all who dare to "explore" their recesses).  Danielewski skillfully manipulates the reader's expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography, and throwing out hints that the house's apparent malevolence may be related to the history of the Jamestown colony, or to Davidson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a dying Vietnamese child stalked by a waiting vulture.  Or, as "some critics [have suggested,] the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it."

Pub Date: March 6, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Page Count: 704

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000

LITERARY FICTION

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by Mark Z. Danielewski

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By Madeline Miller

Book review, full book summary and synopsis for Circe by Madeline Miller, an elegant and delightful retelling of Greek mythological tales.

Circe is the daughter of Helios, God of the Sun, and Perse, an Oceanid nymph. Despite her divinity, she is less beautiful and lacks the skills of her siblings, so she is largely shunned and ridiculed among the godly.

When she falls in love with a mortal who, of course, is fated to age and die, she is desperate enough to experiment with a different and illicit type of power -- potions and witchcraft, and with it she discovers her own ability to bend the world to her will.

(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)

Full Plot Summary

Circe is born a God, the daughter of a Titan and a water nymph. However, she lacks the powers of her siblings and is less beautiful. They treat her unkindly, except for Aeëtes , but he is granted a kingdom and leaves.

Circe falls in love with Glaucos , a mortal fisherman. In hopes of making Glaucos immortal, Circe learns about illicit Pharmaka , herbs endowed with power that only grow where Gods have fallen. She transforms Glaucos into a Sea-God, but he soon becomes enamored with the beautiful but malicious Scylla . Circe turns Scylla into a sea monster.

Circe is exiled to the empty island of Aiaia for her use of witchcraft, and there she hones her knowledge of herbs and magic. One day, Daedalus , a famed mortal craftsman, arrives at Aiaia, requesting help for Pasiphaë , Circe's sister. In Knossos, Pasiphaë gives birth to a Minotaur. Circe uses magic to manage its hunger, and Daedalus builds it a labyrinthine cage. Daedalus is forced to help because they have his son, Icarus. Daedalus later tries to build wings to help his son escape Knossos, but Icarus flies too close to the sun and dies. Daedalus later dies from old age.

Next, Medea (Aeëtes's daughter) and Jason , arrive at Aiaia, asking to be cleansed. Medea has murdered her own brother and used magic to help Jason acquire a golden fleece. Circe warns Medea that Jason's feeling for Medea will wane now that she is no longer useful to him, and Medea angrily departs.

Later, Alke , the daughter of a lesser river lord, is sent to serve Circe, now known as the Witch of Aiaia, as a punishment. Soon, others adopt the idea and send their troublesome daughters there, too. One day, sailors show up. Circe offers them food, but the captain attacks her so turns them into pigs. Other sailors go to Aiaia when they hear of the island of Nymphs. At first Circe attempts to suss out if they are honest men, but Circe eventually assumes they are all dishonest and turns them all into pigs.

One day, Odysseus and his men arrive. He has an herb that prevents Circe from harming him. She finds him charming, sleeps with him and promises not to harm him. For a year, he stays as he mends his ship. Circe knows he is married, but she yearns for him to stay. Before he leaves, Circe sends him to a prophet and warns about the obstacles in his trip home (Scylla, etc.).

But Circe is pregnant and her mortal son, Telegonus , is soon born. Athena wants the child dead and offers her eternal blessings in exchange, but Circe refuses. Instead, Circe uses powerful magic to protect the island. Telegonus grows up, but longs to visit his father. Circe finally relents and helps him gather protections for the journey. She agrees to suffer eternal pain to acquire a deadly weapon, the tail of Trygon , a sea god. But Trygon ultimately doesn't extract the price and simply tells her to return it when she's done.

Telegonus leaves for Ithaca, but returns quickly because Odysseus is dead. Odysseus misunderstood his intentions and fought him instead, scratching himself on the Trygon's tail. Circe realizes that Athena wanted Telegonus dead to prevent this. Telegonus has also brought Telemachus (Odysseus’s other son) and Penelope (Odysseus’s wife) to the island. Penelope is worried Athena will claim Telemachus in Odysseus's absence and hopes for Circe's protection. Circe uses her magic to protect them, but Athena makes her demands. She wants Telemachus to leave and start an empire, but he has no desire for glory and power. However, Telegonus longs for adventure, and he accepts instead.

With Telegonus gone, Circe calls for her father, demanding that he talk to Zeus and release her from exile. She threatens to tell Zeus the Titans' secrets and start a war. Free to leave, Circe and Telemachus go to turn Scylla into stone, and Circe confides in Telemachus all her secrets. (Telemachus fills her in on what ended up happening with Medea — Jason married another. Medea kills the new wife and murders her children. A golden chariot whisks her home.) Penelope becomes an expert on herbs and becomes the Witch of Aiaia instead.

The book ends with Circe making a potion to bring forth her true self. She then has a vision of herself as a mortal, growing old with Telemachus. She drinks the potion.

For more detail, see the full Section-by-Section Summary .

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Book Review

Circe , by Madeline Miller, came out early last year, and I’ve been keen to find time for it, so it seemed like a good book to kick off the spring season.

It’s a re-telling the story of Circe, a character originated circa 8th century B.C. by Homer. In Homer’s in The Odyssey , Odysseus encounters her on the island of Aeaea where she is villainously doling out dangerous potions and turning men into pigs.

While in her original incarnation she’s mostly an obstacle to be overcome, in Miller’s reinvented tale, she’s given a new life, as well as a meaningful and imaginative story deeply rooted in a myriad of mythological tales.

The Palace at Knossos in Crete

A while back, I took a trip to Greece and visited one of the locations that appears briefly in the book, the remains of Minos’s Palace at Knossos in Crete. It was about a hour out from where we were staying, so we had to rent a car, and it was a whole mess, but I desperately wanted to see it.

I’ve come across other references to this site then, but Circe was the first book that ever made me reminisce about it. Reading Circe, I could imagine that crumbling Minoan archaeological site, thousands upon thousands of years old, as a living, breathing palace, gleaming with splendor and marveling that I’d once walked those walkways as well.

Miller’s mythological retelling is so dazzlingly alive . She uses Circe’s story to bring in a whole host of other mythologies, ranging from the Titanomachy (“battle of the Titans”) to the Gift of Fire, various other parts of the Odyssey and so on. The events of these stories all overlap, one washing over the next, intertwining in a delightful and inventive manner. Under Miller’s imaginative gaze, these classic stories are endowed with a newfound energy. Fleshed-out and lively, it’s a pleasure to read, especially if you’re someone who loves mythological tales.

The most difficult part of reading Circe for me was that it took forever because whenever a mention of any character came up, I was always tempted to look them up on Wikipedia to see what parts of their story originate from where. This inevitably led me down deep, and I mean deep , rabbit holes of endless Wikipedia entries and other sources filled with mythological esoterica. (But honestly, I’d consider that a feature, not a bug, when it comes to reading).

Ulysses at the Palace of Circe by Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg (1667)

Themes and Character Development

By the second half of the book, Circe has been alive for over a thousand years. She becomes more reflective about her experiences during various interludes, and certainly when Circe’s story takes a darker turn. At those junctions, Miller is thoughtful and introspective. In the book’s more somber moments, Miller explores Circe’s loneliness, alienation, and how her perceptions may have been warped by her experiences or misunderstandings.

Through the relationship of the gods, Titans, Olympians, lesser gods, mortals and so forth, the book contemplates the meaning of having power, how power is derived and how power effects how people relate to each other. Furthermore, using a range of classic Greek Myths to tell a story provides the perfect foundation and a wide berth to delve into fundamental questions about morals and goodness and pragmatism and ambition and balancing it all with the need to survive and protect yourself.

I loved what a complete character Circe is. She is complex, imperfect and is consistently drawn in a way that grounds her in reality, despite her divine origins.

Read it or Skip it?

I loved this book. I loved this book so much, it actually surprises me how strongly I feel about it. If you like mythology, Circe is a must read, no caveats. It is such a vivid and wonderful story that brings together so many bits and pieces of Greek mythology and somehow turns them into a cohesive book that is well worth your time. It is all at once thoughtful and entertaining and elegantly written. I was delighted by it.

If you aren’t as into mythology, I still think the story is very worthwhile, though you may have to exercise a bit more patience as you get grounded in all the characters and their stories. I’d really encourage you to give it a shot though if you’re looking for an entertaining, yet meaningful and complex story.

Circe won me over about 20 pages in, and it only got better from there. It’s honestly been quite a few years since I’ve found a book I loved as much as this one, so my feeling can be summed up as follows: 1) I’m sad it’s over, 2) I can’t believe I waited so long to read this, and 3) I need to go buy a copy of Madeline Miller’s previous novel, The Song of Achilles .

Have you read this and what did you think? See Circe on Amazon .

Book Excerpt

Read the first pages of Circe

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See Everything We Know About the 'Circe' Adaptation

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38 comments

Share your thoughts cancel reply.

Been meaning to read this. Do you think reading it in electronic format is OK? Some books lose something when read on a device.

Funny you should ask! I actually read half of it as an ebook and half of it on hard copy (I had a hard copy but forgot to bring it and didn’t want to stop reading. Of course, by the end I loved it so much I went out and bought a first edition signed copy, haha, so now I actually have two.)

Anyway, my point is, it’s definitely readible as an ebook, I did just fine with it. But if you’re like me, maybe you’ll just end up wanting it regardless. Mostly my advice is to read it ASAP because it’s really good. :)

Perfect. Thanks!

Thanks for reminding me about this! I’ve added both Miller books to my TBR. We’re great fans of Greek mythology around here: I was hooked during my childhood, when the marionette puppeteers who used to make the rounds of the schools put on a “Golden Fleece” show; and my kids grew up watching the 1950s “Jason and the Argonauts” movie, when it was finally released on video, just as I had been raised on it, back when it was released to broadcast TV (I still love those ancient special effects).

Oh, I’m excited on your behalf, I think you’re going to love it! I honestly don’t understand how anyone can NOT love mythology, it’s so fascinating and fun and dramatic. That’s so awesome they did a Golden Fleece show, it sounds like that would be so much fun! Thanks for your thoughts and happy happy reading! Hope you’re having a great weekend!

I hadn’t thought about the puppet shows for years, and had forgotten the name of the troupe, but it must have been the Cole Marionettes (see Mr. Cole’s obituary, which mentions the Jason and the Golden Fleece show: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-10-21-8603190250-story.html ). The puppet shows were an eagerly anticipated annual event at our elementary school, but the only one I remember is the Golden Fleece. Greek mythology rocks! :)

Oooh! I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about this book! It’s waiting on my shelf … I think it’ll make a good July read?

Yes, do it! I actually bought this book back in September or somewhere around there and I still can’t believe I let it sit there for so long, haha. Hope you love it!

I adored Circe, and The Song of Achilles!

I’m really excited for the Song of Achilles, though I’m a little scared my expectations are way too high now, haha. :)

This has been on my TBR list for awhile. I hope I can get to it soon. Thanks for your thoughts.

So many books, so little time, such a familiar feelings, haha. This one is really good though. Hope you love it if you get a chance to read it!

Yeah this book is amazing.

Right?! The best part about book blogging is getting to chat with others about how awesome a book is when you find one you love… thanks for dropping by!

So glad you read this book!!! Honestly one of our favorites!!! You have to read A Song of Achilles, because like Circe it draws you into Ancient Greece like nothing before! When you get the chance to read, come check our review and tell us your thoughts as well!!

Thanks for dropping by! I’ll give your review a read later today, thanks for the heads up!

Glad to see you enjoyed this book so much! I listened to the audio last summer and found the story lively – it moves at such an absorbing pace, from start to finish.

Yeah, I was surprised how evenly paced it was considering how much of the book hinges on understanding her internal thought processes. I feel like it’s hard to write that stuff in a way that doesn’t make the book drag. I think it worked well in Circe because she does a fantastic job of “showing” you how her perspective on things is shaped, etc. instead of just doing a bunch of internal monologues. Thanks for dropping by!

I finished it today and absolutely love it. your review is beautiful

Thank you for the kind comment! Glad to connect with people who loved this book as well! :) Cheers!

This book was fantastic. Appreciate the review.

Thanks for dropping by and thanks for reading!

Thanks for your review, I’ve been meaning to read this book and whilst I’m not a huge fan of her previous book, I have to admit she has a beautiful writing and a melancholy that I like. Can’t wait to read this one.

Oh, I’m sad to hear you didn’t like A Song of Achilles. I’m really curious about it — I haven’t read it yet so unfortunately I have no insight to provide on a comparison between the two, but I hope you do like Circe, and thanks for reading the review!

Oh it’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s just that the first half of the book was a nit difficult for me. I didn’t quite like how the story was told, but the second half was amazing. I cried by the time it ends. Anw, I love reading your reviews, it’s always well written.

This book does deserve a glowing review! Loved it too!

I honestly can’t believe I didn’t read it sooner! Thanks for dropping by!

I wrote about Circe in my dissertation so it seems incredible I still haven’t read it!! Fingers crossed I get round to it soon!!

I bet you’ll love it! Thanks for reading!

I absolutely rave about this book as well! I was lucky enough to hear Madeline Miller talk about it at an author event – especially hearing her read sections aloud, based on the Ancient Greek oral traditions of storytelling. Your review sums up everything I enjoyed about Circe, I particularly like what you said about the book exploring power and morals in general. It’s amazing how easy it is to relate to the characters, even though they are divine beings living thousands of years ago! 😊

Oh that’s awesome, I’m jealous I would’ve loved to hear that. I’m so glad other people loved this book too! :) Thanks for dropping by!

Nicely written review. I’ll think I’ll read the book.

Thank you! Hope you like it if you get a chance to read it!

I liked Circe :) just wished she had gone deeper into the stories of the other gods!

I’ve just finished this book and the tears are still drying on my cheeks. I was so moved by her relationships with mortals, while the gods were cold and almost lifeless – as the author intended. There are so many themes to explore here. I borrowed a friend’s copy but might have to buy my own so I can revisit this intriguing and complex take on Circe – and spend some more time exploring the many threads of mythology that weave their way through the tale as you clearly have done. Thanks for the great review.

I just finished the audio version of Madelne Miller’s “Circe” narrated by Perdita Weeks. It was an astoundng experience to hear Circe’s story in Circe’s voice.

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• Winner of the 2019 Indie Choice Award Shortlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction Named one of the 'Best Books of 2018' by NPR, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Southern Living, and Refinery 29.
• "Circe,' [is] a bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story that manages to be both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right." Alexandra Alter, New York Times
• "One of the most amazing qualities of this novel [is]: We know how everything here turns out - we've known it for thousands of years - and yet in Miller's lush reimagining, the story feels harrowing and unexpected. The feminist light she shines on these events never distorts their original shape; it only illuminates details we hadn't noticed before." Ron Charles, Washington Post
• "[Miller] gives voice to Circe as a multifaceted and evolving character...'Circe' is very pleasurable to read, combining lively versions of familiar tales and snippets of other, related standards with a highly psychologized, redemptive and ultimately exculpatory account of the protagonist herself." Claire Messud, New York Times Book Review
• "The story of Circe's entanglement with Odysseus lasts far beyond the narrative of "The Odyssey," making for compelling material to revisit. But ultimately it's as a character that Circe stands apart....Through her elegant, psychologically acute prose, Miller gives us a rich female character who inhabits the spaces in between." Colleen Abel, Minneapolis Star Tribune
• "Miller's lush, gold-lit novel - told from the perspective of the witch whose name in Greek has echoes of a hawk and a weaver's shuttle - paints another picture: of a fierce goddess who, yes, turns men into pigs, but only because they deserve it." NPR.org
• "so vivid, so layered, you could get lost in it... Whether or not you think you like Greek Mythology, this is just great storytelling. It feels cinematic." NPR's Here & Now
• "Spellbinding..Miller has created a daring feminist take on a classic narrative; although the setting is a mystical world of gods, monsters, and nymphs, the protagonist at its heart is like any of us." O Magazine
• "Miller's spell builds slowly, but by the last page you'll be in awe. In prose of dreamlike simplicity, she reimagines the myth of Circe." People
• "Miller, with her academic bona fides and born instinct for storytelling, seamlessly grafts modern concepts of selfhood and independence to her mystical reveries of smoke and silver, nectar and bones." Entertainment Weekly
• "This telling, in the sorceress's own words, is not the version we think we know." New York Times 'T Magazine'
• "Miller gives voice to a previously muted perspective in the classics, forging a great romance from the scraps left to us by the ancients.... Circe is, instead, a romp, an airy delight, a novel to be gobbled greedily in a single sitting ." Aida Edemariam, Guardian
• "In Madeline Miller's "Circe" - the gorgeous and gimlet-eyed follow-up to her Orange Prize-winning first novel, "The Song of Achilles" - the goddess is young and romantic enough at the start to feel a tiny bit let down that she's not shackled to a rock like her uncle, Prometheus, getting her liver pecked out each day."   Laura Collins-Hughes, Boston Globe
• Ambitious in scope, Circe is above all the chronicle of an outsider woman who uses her power and wits to protect herself and the people she loves, ultimately looking within to define herself. Readers will savor the message of standing against a hostile world and forging a new way." Shelf Awareness
• "A retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch... [Circe is] a sly, petulant, and finally commanding voice that narrates the entirety of Miller's dazzling second novel....Readers will relish following the puzzle of this unpromising daughter of the sun god Helios and his wife, Perse, who had negligible use for their child....Expect Miller's readership to mushroom like one of Circe's spells. Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters." Kirkus, Starred Review
• "An epic spanning thousands of years that's also a keep-you-up-all-night page turner." Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth
• "With lyric beauty of language and melancholy evocative of Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn", CIRCE asks all the big questions of existence while framing them in the life story of the famous goddess who had the magic of transformations. A veritable Who's Who of the gods of Olympus and the heroes of ancient Greece, Circe knows them all and we see them through her perceptive eyes. This is as close as you will ever come to entering the world of mythology as a participant. Stunning, touching, and unique." Margaret George, author of The Confessions of Young Nero
• "Circe bears its own transformative magic, a power enabled by Miller's keen eye for beauty, adventure, and reinvention. Through the charms of a misfit heroine, the world of gods becomes stunningly alive, and the world of our own humanity--its questions, loves, and bonds--is illuminated. This book is an immense gift to anyone who reads to find their own bravery and quest." Affinity Konar, author of Mischling
• "Madeline Miller, master storyteller, conjures Circe glowing and alive - and makes the Gods, nymphs and heroes of ancient Greece walk forth in all their armored splendor. Richly detailed and written with such breathtaking command of story, you will be held enchanted. A breathtaking novel." Helen Simonson, author of The Summer Before the War and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
• " Circe is the utterly captivating, exquisitely written, story of an ordinary, and extraordinary, woman's life" Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing
• "Written with power and grace, this enchanting, startling, gripping story casts a spell as strong and magical as any created by the sorceress Circe." Mary Doria Russell, author of Epitaph
• "Madeline Miller's re-imagining of the witch Circe from The Odyssey makes for an intriguing, feminist adventure novel that is perfectly suited for the #TimesUp moment. Circe is also a smart read that has much to say about the long-term consequences of war and a culture that values violence and conquest over compassion and learning...Miller mines intriguing details from the original tale to imagine a rich backstory for Circe that allows readers to re-visit the world of Olympians and Titans in Greek mythology. From the court of the Titans, the reader meets Circe's parents, the god Helios and nymph Perse, and is introduced to a world of supernatural power players that is every bit as back-biting, gossip-filled and vicious as any episode of House of Cards ." May-Lee Chai, Dallas News
• "'Circe' is a sentence-by-sentence miracle"; Michigan Daily

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CIRCE Kindle Edition

• Print length 433 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date April 10, 2018
• File size 2219 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B074M5TLLJ
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company (April 10, 2018)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 10, 2018
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 2219 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 433 pages
• #2 in Military Historical Fiction
• #2 in Classic Literary Fiction
• #4 in Mythology (Kindle Store)

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Is Circe a Novel You Should Really Read?

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About the author

Madeline miller.

Madeline Miller grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. She attended Brown University, where she earned her BA and MA in Classics. She has taught and tutored Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare to high school students for over fifteen years. She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms.

The Song of Achilles, her first novel, was awarded the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a New York Times Bestseller. Her second novel, Circe, was an instant number 1 New York Times bestseller, and won the Indies Choice Best Adult Fiction of the Year Award and the Indies Choice Best Audiobook of the Year Award, as well as being shortlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction. Circe also won The Red Tentacle Award, an American Library Association Alex Award (adult books of special interest to teen readers), and the 2018 Elle Big Book Award. Miller's novels have been translated into over twenty-five languages including Dutch, Mandarin, Japanese, Turkish, Arabic and Greek, and her essays have appeared in a number of publications including the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Telegraph, Lapham's Quarterly and NPR.org. Most recently, she has published a standalone short story, Galatea. She currently lives outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Visit her website at: www.madelinemiller.com

Photo credit: Nina Subin

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Circe by Madeline Miller

17 Dec Circe by Madeline Miller

Buy Circe Now!

Bookshop.org

“Circe” spans several centuries, offering a deep dive into the life of its eponymous character. It begins with Circe’s childhood in the halls of Helios, her father, where she struggles to find her place among gods and nymphs. She discovers her penchant for witchcraft, a talent that leads to her exile on the island of Aiaia. This isolation becomes both a punishment and a sanctuary, allowing Circe to hone her magical skills and interact with various figures from Greek mythology, including Odysseus, the Minotaur, and Athena. The novel is not just a series of events but a profound exploration of Circe’s evolution from a naive nymph to a powerful sorceress, grappling with her immortality and her desire to understand the mortal world.

Main Characters

• Circe : Initially a timid and overlooked nymph, Circe grows into a formidable witch. Her journey is marked by moments of vulnerability, strength, and deep introspection.
• Odysseus : A clever and complex character, Odysseus’ interaction with Circe adds layers to both their stories.
• Telemachus : Odysseus’ son, who visits Circe and develops a unique bond with her.
• Athena : The goddess who often stands as Circe’s antagonist, representing the capricious and often cruel nature of the gods.

In-Depth Analysis

Miller’s writing is a standout feature, with its lyrical quality and deep emotional resonance. The novel excels in its portrayal of Circe as a multifaceted character, exploring themes of power, isolation, and identity. It also delves into the pettiness and politics of the gods, contrasting it with Circe’s growing affinity for humanity.

• Character Development : Circe’s evolution is the heart of the story. Miller skillfully depicts her transformation, making her a relatable and compelling protagonist.
• Lyrical Prose : The writing style is evocative and poetic, enhancing the mythological setting and the emotional depth of the narrative.
• Pacing : Some readers might find the middle part of the book a bit slow, as it delves deeply into character exploration.

Literary Devices

• Symbolism : Circe’s witchcraft symbolizes her independence and self-discovery.
• Foreshadowing : The novel uses subtle hints to foretell key events, particularly in the interactions between gods and mortals.

Relation to Broader Issues

“Circe” speaks to the universal themes of identity, power dynamics, and the nature of humanity. It also touches on gender roles and the struggle for autonomy, particularly resonant in the #MeToo era.

“Circe” will appeal to fans of Greek mythology, character-driven narratives, and feminist literature. It stands out for its fresh take on a mythological figure often relegated to the margins of these stories. Readers who enjoyed “The Song of Achilles,” also by Miller, or “The Silence of the Girls” by Pat Barker, will likely find this novel captivating.

Potential Audiences

• Fans of Greek mythology and retellings.
• Readers interested in feminist narratives.
• Those who appreciate character-driven stories and lyrical prose.

Thematic Analysis

The novel deeply explores themes like female empowerment, the nature of divinity versus humanity, and the search for identity. Circe’s journey is a powerful representation of breaking free from societal constraints and finding one’s voice.

Stylistic Elements

Miller’s prose is rich and poetic, bringing a modern sensibility to ancient myths. Her use of vivid imagery and careful pacing adds depth to the narrative and characters.

Comparison with Other Works

“Circe” can be compared to “The Song of Achilles” in its retelling of Greek myths with a humanistic perspective. It also shares thematic similarities with works like “The Penelopiad” by Margaret Atwood, offering a feminist perspective on classical stories.

Potential Test Questions with Answers

• It represents her transformation from an ignored nymph to a powerful witch, allowing her to explore her abilities and independence.
• She portrays him as complex and flawed, focusing on his cunning and moral ambiguities.

Awards and Recognitions

“Circe” was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2019 and received critical acclaim for its innovative approach to myth retelling.

Bibliographic Information

• Title : Circe
• Author : Madeline Miller
• Publication Date : 2018
• Publisher : Little, Brown and Company
• ISBN : 978-0316556347

BISAC Categories:

• Historical – Ancient
• Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
• War & Military

Summaries of Awards and Other Reviews

• Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Adult Literature (2019)
• ALA Alex Award (2019) ,
• Tähtifantasia Award Nominee (2022)
• Women’s Prize for Fiction Nominee (2019)
• The Kitschies for Red Tentacle (Best Novel) (2019) ,
• Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy (2018)
• Book of the Month Book of the Year Award (2018) ,
• RUSA CODES Reading List Nominee for Historical Fiction (2019)

#1  New York Times  Bestseller — named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the  Washington Post ,  People ,  Time , Amazon,  Entertainment Weekly ,  Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.

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Is this book a series.

“Circe” is a standalone novel. However, Madeline Miller’s other work, “The Song of Achilles,” explores similar themes in a different mythological context.

About Madeline Miller

Madeline Miller is an American novelist and classics scholar. Her debut novel, “The Song of Achilles,” also received critical acclaim and awards. Miller is known for her ability to reimagine ancient myths with contemporary relevance and emotional depth.

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Circe by Madeline Miller review: a fresh take on ancient mythical tale

A complex, compelling portrait of one of the most intriguing women in western literature.

The daughter of a sea nymph and the Titan sun god Helios, Circe is doomed to immortality

Circe doesn't take up much space in Homer's Odyssey – the visit to her island takes up just 15 pages in Emily Wilson's 2017 translation – but the sorceress who turns men into pigs makes an indelible impact. Since her story was first told several thousand years ago, she's inspired countless artists and writers from Ovid to John William Waterhouse. In her new novel Circe , Madeline Miller, who won the Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles in 2012, offers a refreshingly complex and utterly compelling portrait of one of the most intriguing women in western literature.

Miller, who has an MA in classics from Brown University, draws on a wide range of ancient Greek and Latin sources to tell Circe’s story. Like its classical source material, the novel is episodic, but this structure perfectly conveys one of the novel’s central themes. Circe is immortal, which means that any relationships she may form with humans, from Daedalus to Odysseus, can only be temporary. They will always age and die, and she will have to move on without them, beautiful, powerful and alone.

The daughter of a sea nymph and the Titan sun god Helios, Circe begins her life in the halls of her father. When she was born, she tells us, “the name for what I was did not exist”. Is she a nymph? A goddess? The truth, as it turns out, is something entirely new. Despised by her divine family, Circe discovers her powers of sorcery when she turns a human fisherman into a god. When he spurns her for another nymph, Scylla, Circe transforms her rival into a horrific sea monster who becomes the sourge of all sailors – an act that will haunt Circe for the rest of her life. Circe is exiled to a lonely island, where she spends centuries honing her craft.

But she’s not totally isolated. She visits Crete, where her cruel sister Pasiphae gives birth to a monster that will become legend, and where Circe bonds with the inventor Daedalus. They work together to contain the Minotaur, combining Daedalus’s human skill and her sorcery. Miller’s depiction of what it feels like to work magic is extraordinarily vivid and convincing – after Daedalus gives Circe a beautiful loom, she is struck by the similarities between working with textiles and with spells: “the simplicity and skill at once…your hands must be busy, and your mind sharp and free”.

Unflinching horror

Circe must return to her island, where she is visited by her intense niece Medea and her husband Jason, an encounter which reminds her of her own loneliness. Not long afterwards we discover what turned her into the seemingly capricious sorceress of Book 10 of the Odyssey , who turns visiting sailors into swine. This is dark magic born of cruelty, described in scenes of unflinching horror, and for a while Circe's pain threatens to consume her. Then along comes wily Odysseus, and everything changes yet again. But where can your story end, when you're going to live forever?

This is, of course, a ripping yarn, and in other hands Circe could have been an ancient Greek equivalent of Marion Zimmer Bradley's sprawling 1983 bestseller The Mists of Avalon , which tells the story of Arthur through the eyes of Morgan le Fey. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. But what elevates Circe is Miller's luminous prose, which is both enormously readable and evocative, and the way in which she depicts the gulf between gods and mortals.

The Titans and Olympians in the novel feel both disturbingly alien and utterly convincing. Miller writes of divinity as a quality that can be felt, expressed and, in the case of Circe, sometimes resented. Crucially, Circe never feels like a modern woman. She is the product of an ancient and immortal world, who begins by feeling repulsed by humans and gradually comes to realise that mortals can grow and change while her fellow immortals are doomed to find variety only in manipulation and destruction. Circe can be part of that cycle of cruel and pointless conflict, or she can choose to break it. In this unforgettable novel, Miller makes us care about that magical, mythical choice.

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The daring, dazzling and highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Song of Achilles

About the book.

"An epic spanning thousands of years that's also a keep-you-up-all-night page turner." - Ann Patchett

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

Circe is currently being adapted for television series by HBO Max .

Find Circe at your local bookstore, or online: Bookshop   Amazon   Barnes and Noble   IndieBound

Love for Circe

#1 New York Times Bestseller

#1 Indie Bestseller

Publisher's Weekly *Starred* Review

Kirkus *Starred* Review

Library Journal *Starred* Review 

NPR ’s “Weekend Edition Saturday” :  Books to Look Forward to in 2018

Esquire : The 27 Most Anticipated Books of 2018

Boston Globe : 25 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018

The Millions : The Most Anticipated: The Great 2018 Book Preview

Cosmopolitan : 33 Books to Get Excited About in 2018

Vox : Five New Books to Purchase This Spring

The Guardian (UK) : Unmissable Culture of 2018

Southern Living : Best New Books Coming in Spring 2018

Book Riot : Most Anticipated Books of 2018

TOR : The Books We’re Looking Forward to in 2018

Reviews for Circe

“A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess’s story that manages to be both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right.” ― The New York Times,   Click here for full profile .

“Miller's lush, gold-lit novel — told from the perspective of the witch whose name in Greek has echoes of a hawk and a weaver's shuttle — paints another picture: of a fierce goddess who, yes, turns men into pigs, but only because they deserve it. . . The character of Circe only occupies a few dozen lines of [The Odyssey ], but Miller extracts worlds of meaning from Homer's short phrases.”  ― NPR.org,   Click here for full review .

“This summer’s must-read novel. . . Circe is poised to become the literary sensation of the summer, as much for the quality of its writing as its timeliness.” ― Sunday Times 

“Circe back as superwoman. . . Bestowing modern feminist mores on classical texts may seem unwise, but its marvelous to see this Circe emerge through the haze, sympathetic and ringing true to 21st-century motivations. . . Blisteringly modern.” ― The Times

“Luminous. . . Deft and compassionate. . . A compelling and engagingly feminist piece of ancient fantasy. . . Readers who know the source stories already will delight in the craft of Miller’s quietly revisionist amendments to these well-worn tales. . . But Circe is also a brilliantly strange work of mythic science fiction, as effortlessly expressive within the palaces of gods as it is about the world below. . . This is both a fabulous novel and a fascinating retelling; the best compliment, perhaps, that any myth could hope for.” ― Daily Telegraph

“Think a novel based on Greek mythology isn’t for you? Just wait. Miller’s spell builds slowly, but by the last page you’ll be in awe. In prose of dreamlike simplicity, she reimagines the myth of Circe, the sun god’s unloved daughter who went on to invent witchcraft and enchant Homer’s Odysseus. The ancient stories and characters are reshaped by truths that modern women can finally speak about sisterhood and sexism, rape and rage, and most exquisitely, motherhood.” ― People 

“Absorbing. . . One of the most amazing qualities of this novel [is]: We know how everything here turns out — we’ve known it for thousands of years — and yet in Miller’s lush reimagining, the story feels harrowing and unexpected. The feminist light she shines on these events never distorts their original shape; it only illuminates details we hadn’t noticed before. . . In the story that dawns from Miller’s rosy fingers, the fate that awaits Circe is at once divine and mortal, impossibility strange and yet entirely human.” ― Washington Post,   Click here for full review .

“Spellbinding. . . in Miller’s conception, Circe is the hero of her own epic. . . Miller has created a daring feminist take on a classic narrative; although the setting is a mystical world of gods, monsters, and nymphs, the protagonist at its heart is like any of us. A free woman, the author seems to be saying, must be willing to forsake the trappings of birthright and rank in order to claim her destiny, whether thousands of years ago or today.” ― O Magazine

“ Circe brilliantly recasts a Greek goddess in a modern light. . . Miller, with her academic bona fides and born instinct for storytelling, seamlessly grafts modern concepts of selfhood and independence to her mystical reveries of smoke and silver, nectar and bones.” ― Entertainment Weekly

“Miller gives voice to a previously muted perspective in the classics, forging a great romance from the scraps left to us by the ancients. . . Circe is, instead, a romp, an airy delight, a novel to be gobbled greedily in a single sitting.” ― The Guardian

“[Miller] transforms [ Circe ] into a thrilling feminist parable.” ― Newsday

“Vivid, transporting. . . [explores] fascinating questions about gender and power.” ― Entertainment Weekly

“Greek mythology is in expert hands in Madeline Miller’s second novel. Miller weaves powerful imagery and emotion into a rich tapestry, depicting the agonies and ecstasies of the mighty forces and figures of the classical world. . . an epic page turner.” ― Christian Science Monitor

“But ultimately it’s as a character that Circe stands apart. . . Through her elegant, psychologically acute prose, Miller gives us a rich female character who inhabits the spaces in between.” ― Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“This mesmerizing novel is a moving tale of a woman finding herself and struggling with family loyalties.”  ― Real Simple

“A stunning epic of a book.”  ― Bustle

“An especially gorgeous novel.” ― Redbook

“Madeline Miller's re-imagining of the witch Circe from  The Odyssey  makes for an intriguing, feminist adventure novel that is perfectly suited for the #TimesUp moment. Circe is also a smart read that has much to say about the long-term consequences of war and a culture that values violence and conquest over compassion and learning.” ― Dallas News

“Madeline Miller’s Circe — the gorgeous and gimlet-eyed follow-up to her Orange Prize-winning first novel, The Song of Achilles .” ― Boston Globe

“It’s so vivid, it’s so layered, you could get lost in it. Whether or not you think you like Greek Mythology it’s just great story telling.”  ― WBUR’s “Here & Now”

“Miller follows her impressive debut ( The Song of Achilles ) with a spirited novel about Circe’s evolution from insignificant nymph to formidable witch best known for turning Odysseus’s sailors into swine. . . Weaving together Homer’s tale with other sources, Miller crafts a classic story of female empowerment. She paints an uncompromising portrait of a superheroine who learns to wield divine power while coming to understand what it means to be mortal.” — Publishers Weekly, *Starred Review*

“In her stirring follow-up to the Orange Prize-winning The Song of Achilles (2011), Miller beautifully voices the experiences of the legendary sorceress Circe. . . This immersive blend of literary fiction and mythological fantasy demonstrates that the Greek myths are still very relevant today.” — Booklist

“A retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch. . . [Circe is] a sly, petulant, and finally commanding voice that narrates the entirety of Miller's dazzling second novel. . . Readers will relish following the puzzle of this unpromising daughter of the sun god Helios and his wife, Perse, who had negligible use for their child. . . Expect Miller's readership to mushroom like one of Circe's spells. Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters.” — Kirkus, *Starred Review*

“This beautifully written and absorbing tale of gods and mortals will delight Miller’s many fans and have them reaching for Edith Hamilton’s  Mythology .” — Library Journal, *Starred Review*

“ Circe  is the utterly captivating, exquisitely written, story of an ordinary, and extraordinary, woman's life.” — Eimear McBride, author of  A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing

“Rapture. Utter rapture. Exquisite, live-wire prose; a wave of a story, surging and ebbing and surging afresh; and above all, Circe herself — once inscrutable, now indelible. Miller has shaken the dust from Homer’s tapestry, blasted it with air and light, and exposed glorious new colors, new textures. A magnificent novel. A privilege to read.” — A.J  Finn , bestselling author of  The Woman in the Window

"Madeline Miller, master storyteller, conjures Circe glowing and alive — and makes the Gods, nymphs and heroes of ancient Greece walk forth in all their armored splendor. Richly detailed and written with such breathtaking command of story, you will be held enchanted. A breathtaking novel." — Helen Simonson, author of The Summer Before the War  and  Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“With lyric beauty of language and melancholy evocative of Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” Circe asks all the big questions of existence while framing them in the life story of the famous goddess who had the magic of transformations. A veritable Who’s Who of the gods of Olympus and the heroes of ancient Greece, Circe knows them all and we see them through her perceptive eyes. This is as close as you will ever come to entering the world of mythology as a participant. Stunning, touching, and unique.” — Margaret George, author of  The Confessions of Young Nero

"Written with power and grace, this enchanting, startling, gripping story casts a spell as strong and magical as any created by the sorceress Circe." — Mary Doria Russell, author of  Epitaph

" Circe bears its own transformative magic, a power enabled by Miller's keen eye for beauty, adventure, and reinvention. Through the charms of a misfit heroine, the world of gods becomes stunningly alive, and the world of our own humanity — its questions, loves, and bonds — is illuminated. This book is an immense gift to anyone who reads to find their own bravery and quest." — Affinity Konar, author of  Mischling

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/discussion-questions-for-circe

Discussion questions for ‘Circe’

Our December pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club is Madeline Miller’s “Circe.” Become a member of the Now Read This book club by joining our Facebook group , or by signing up to our newsletter . Learn more about the book club here .

“Circe” by Madeline Miller. Credit: Little, Brown and Company

Below are questions to help guide your discussions as you read the book over the next month. You can also submit your own questions for Miller on our Google form . She will answer reader questions on the PBS NewsHour broadcast at the end of the month.

WARNING: Spoiler alert on questions further down.

• Before reading “Circe,” did you know the character of Circe from Homer’s “Odyssey”? If so, what do you remember about her?
• From the book’s beginning, Miller makes her gender critique of Greek mythology clear. The goddesses, for the most part, are beholden to the gods. Circe’s father “believed the world’s natural order was to please him.” Why is this critique important? What is Miller trying to tell us?
• What do you make of Miller’s voice in the book, at times adopting a more formal style, and at other times more contemporary?
• A recurring theme in the book is the meaning of mortality. Circe cares for mortals, is born with a mortal’s voice, even yearns to be one of them. Yet she also sees their frailties, telling us that mortals must deal with death as “best they can.” How does it make you reflect on your own mortality?
• How is this book subversive?
• One of Circe’s first lessons in the book is: “Beneath the smooth, familiar face of things is another that waits to tear the world in two.” What does this mean?
• As a book club, we read “An Odyssey” by Daniel Mendelsohn earlier this year. It was a memoir about a father and son’s transformative journey in reading the Greek epic poem together. “Circe” is a very different take. But does it share any of the same themes?
• Much of “Circe” is about finding yourself despite how others may perceive you or try to contain you. Circe’s brother tells her: “Not every god need be the same.” What did you learn about finding yourself in this book?
• How does Circe transform over the course of the book? Do you attribute it to her hard work devoted to pharmaka , her loneliness on the island, or something else?
• “Most of what passed as cleverness was only archness of spite,” Miller writes, in one of many times she describes the gods in the book as not just powerful, but also petty. Why do you think she describes them this way?
• The Minotaur, Artemis, Daedalus, and the Furies all make guest appearances. How does Miller’s retelling make you think of any of them differently?
• When Circe is discovered to be a witch, she is treated very differently than her brother. Why? Did this book make you think about “witch hunts” or the persecution of women as witches?
• At one point, Miller writes that gods do not care if a person is good, wicked, or beautiful — only that they have power. And yet power, it seems, corrupts the characters in this book. What did you learn about power by reading “Circe”?
• When a sailor rapes Circe, she starts turning men who land on her island into pigs with a spell. In Homer’s “Odyssey,” this transformation is perhaps Circe’s most famous scene in that tale. How did Miller’s reimagining cause you to think differently about that story?
• In Circe’s relationship with Odysseus, only he tells her stories and she never once tells him about her life. Why is that significant?
• Why does Circe’s guilt over Scylla matter? Why is it meaningful that Circe transforms her from a murderous monster into a stone?
• How does Circe’s experience of motherhood compare to others in the book? To her own mother? To her sister, Pasiphaë? To Penelope?
• Do her lovers, both mortal and immortal, have anything in common? What is it about Telemachus that she finds worth trading her mortality?
• What would you do if you had millennia to live on a deserted island? How would you spend your time and energies?
• Were you surprised that Circe drank a potion to become mortal? Do you think that she succeeds?

Elizabeth Flock is an independent journalist who reports on justice and gender. She can be reached at [email protected]

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Lurid, violent, imaginative tale told by mythical sorceress.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Lots of in-depth detail about Greek mythology -- t

Making the best of grotesquely evil, violent circu

Penelope and Telemachus are basically good, ethica

All the characters are from Greek mythology. Both

As told in the original myths, the whole tale is a

Sex is not not explicitly described, but over the

Especially early in the narrative, cursing and cru

Characters drink alcohol, often to excess; Circe o

Parents need to know that Circe , by classical scholar and author Madeline Miller, first published in 2018, is a best-selling, imaginative, lurid and violent story of the legendary sorceress, written for an adult audience but also popular with teens. Poets have told of Circe's magic, power, lovers, and…

Educational Value

Lots of in-depth detail about Greek mythology -- the Titans, the Olympian gods, their lurid and violent doings (like Kronos devouring his children), and the many ways they find to mess with the lives of mortals. Like the Trojan War and its aftermath. The tales of the Minotaur, Theseus, and Ariadne; Daedalus and Icarus; Jason and Medea; and other mythological stories are interwoven with Circe's narrative.

Positive Messages

Making the best of grotesquely evil, violent circumstances when you're stuck with them, and doing better when you're shown a better way. Love and kindness offer hope and, possibly, redemption. Making amends for your past misdeeds. Resourceful problem-solving. The life-changing discovery that decent, honest people actually exist.

Positive Role Models

Penelope and Telemachus are basically good, ethical people trying to do right in dire circumstances; Telemachus in particular is haunted by murders he's done because his father ordered it, and seeks to live a better life. Circe is trying to do better, against the odds; she is kind to Prometheus when he's tortured and suffering. Her son Telegonus is kind-hearted and empathetic. Daedalus, who's guilt-ridden about the Minotaur and his many victims, is devoted to his son Icarus, and becomes one of Circe's lovers. Everyone else is pretty much useless, evil, or both, and perfectly willing to lie, maim, and kill to get their way. Like Medea, who kills her brother and throws his body parts in the water to delay her pursuing father.

Diverse Representations

All the characters are from Greek mythology. Both gay and straight romantic/sexual relationships are part of the story.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

As told in the original myths, the whole tale is awash in violence, treachery, and gore. Coming from a family where her uncle was known for devouring his children, and all her relatives are murderously self-serving, Circe does plenty of violent deeds, like turning a romantic rival into a legendary, seafarer-devouring monster. Raped by a pirate, she responds by turning him and his crew (who were planning to take their own turns) into pigs and hacking them to bits. She also drugs many (male) visitors to her island before killing them. Much hacking, slashing, butchery, ritual sacrifice, and two lengthy, graphically described C-sections. One self-administered and the other involving the birth of the Minotaur. The beating of Prometheus, prior to his being chained to a mountain and having his liver devoured anew each day by eagles, is gruesomely described; his fate is important to the story. Many gods and humans are sexual predators, taking what they want and leaving destruction in their wake -- and the skills of treachery and manipulation necessary to deal with them are a strong theme. Assorted massacres of innocents for convenience or political gain; few perpetrators feel guilty about it. A cheating husband's partners all die -- because his wife has cast a spell that turns his semen to snakes and scorpions that kill them from within. The murder of Hector's baby son Astyanax at the end of the Trojan War is vividly described.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sex is not not explicitly described, but over the many centuries of the story, Circe has several lovers, humans and gods (though not nearly as many as imaginative poets have described from Homer to the present day). Being immortal, she's fated to outlive the mortals -- which gets stranger than usual when she falls in love with an ex's son. Of her relationship with the god Hermes, she says, "He was a poison snake, and I was another, and on such terms we pleased ourselves." As told in The Odyssey , Penelope is harassed by suitors who want to marry her for her money, which is also Odysseus' money. Circe's father regards his many female children as lucrative, power-building assets in his dealings with kings and gods. He also transforms himself into a bull to have sex with his prized cows and breed new ones; Circe's sister has sex with a bull and gives birth to the Minotaur. Circe wonders if her siblings are having sex with each other -- it's not uncommon among gods, so she thinks it's likely.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Especially early in the narrative, cursing and crude language, often brutal, as when the character who gives birth to the Minotaur announces "I f---ed the bull." Later, in the throes of labor, "I've had eight children! Just cut the f---ing thing out of me!" Circe's eyes are described as the color of piss. References to bastards, especially of gods.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink alcohol, often to excess; Circe often gets unwelcome visitors drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Circe , by classical scholar and author Madeline Miller, first published in 2018, is a best-selling, imaginative, lurid and violent story of the legendary sorceress, written for an adult audience but also popular with teens. Poets have told of Circe's magic, power, lovers, and children (often in contradictory narratives driven by the poet's era and agenda) from Homer to the present. In this version, which follows much of the classics and will be familiar to mythology-loving readers, a young, unloved daughter of the sun god, born to a nightmare world of murderous, sociopathic divinities, experiments with magic and is exiled to a remote island, where over the centuries she encounters Daedalus, takes him as a lover, and becomes involved in the birth of the Minotaur. Later, Odysseus arrives on the island, fathers her son, and sets in motion many of the events that follow. Sadistic violence, rape, betrayal, bestiality (especially with cows), and incest were pretty much everyday occurrences with the Greek gods, and most of it is on parade here, with the rest broadly hinted at. The discovery that decent, honest people exist is life-changing for Circe -- but there's a whole lot of dark, gruesome, evil stuff on the way to it.

Where to Read

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• Parents say (2)

Based on 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

CIRCE, daughter of the sun god Helios, is born into a toxic world of recent cosmic upheaval -- one of her uncles, Kronos, has devoured all his children until their desperate mother spirits baby Zeus to safety, Zeus returns to force Kronos to vomit his devoured children, and they all join Zeus to become gods of Olympus. Feuding, scheming, treachery, and murder ensue, the gods mess with humans for sport, and soon to unfold, the tales of the Minotaur, the Golden Fleece, the Odyssey, and more. Circe, a lot more innocent than her family members and often called ugly and stupid, falls in love with a mortal who's an undeserving jerk even before she uses magic to make him a god, and transforms her rival for his affections into a legendary monster. Exiled to a remote island for her bold rule-breaking by a father who happily reduces people to ash, she delves into the world of herbs, potions, and magic, and finds her power.

"For a hundred generations, I had walked the world drowsy and dull, idle and at my ease. I left no prints, I did no deeds. Even those who had loved me a little did not care to stay. Then I learned that I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent for an arrow. I would have done that toil a thousand times to keep such power in my hands. I thought: this is how Zeus felt when he first lifted the thunderbolt."

Is It Any Good?

Madeline Miller's best-selling tale revisits the dark, lurid doings of Greek gods in the wake of a cosmic battle, as seen through the eyes of the lecherous, murderous sun god's unloved daughter. In this imaginative, vivid retelling, Circe struggles amid the carnage to navigate her treacherous world, and over many centuries delves into magic, turns her rival into the monster Scylla, and takes as lovers lost sailors Daedalus and Odysseus, whose deeds are often seen here more for their harm than their glory. The discovery that honest, decent people exist points to new and unimagined possibilities, but like the narrator, the reader may often feel helplessly overwhelmed by evil forces along the way to the glimmers of hope.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about stories like Circe that are based on characters in classical mythology -- and how each version of the tale reflects its author's time, place, and agenda. Over the centuries, murderous Medea has been spun as everything from a monster to a feminist icon; how do you think this version of Circe's story compares with others you know -- and what messages might that imply?

Why do you think some cultures see gods as showing the best qualities of humans, and others see them gleefully outdoing the worst of human deeds? How would it change your life if you believed one or the other?

Using magic to control other people -- good? evil? it depends?

Book Details

• Author : Madeline Miller
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Character Strengths : Perseverance
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date : April 10, 2018
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 18 - 18
• Number of pages : 400
• Available on : Paperback, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Last updated : May 11, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Fantastic Beasts and Other Creatures Abound in May’s Graphic Novels

There be monsters in four new volumes out this month (yes, even in “Nancy”).

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By Sam Thielman

Sam Thielman is a reporter and critic based in Brooklyn. In addition to his monthly column for The Times, he has written about comics and graphic novels for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Slate and The Guardian.

The seven-year wait since Emil Ferris published her debut graphic novel has felt far longer than that, but MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS, BOOK 2 (Fantagraphics, 412 pp., $44.99) is finally here, and now the first book is no longer in a class by itself. There is apparently nothing Ferris can’t render: A cartoony girl-werewolf — her protagonist, Karen Reyes, drawn as she sees herself — seems to flow from her multicolored ballpoint pens as easily as Jan Sanders van Hemessen’s musclebound Judith , standing contrapposto next to the head of Holophernes on one memorable page, wields her sword.

And that’s part of the point. Ferris is drawing a murder mystery and a story about Chicago in the 1960s and a coming-of-age tale, but she’s also interested in all the ways that high art is in conversation with low art. Her gangsters, drag queens and hippie philosophers might be aliens or vampires from a sleazy magazine on one page, but they could just as easily populate a Picasso or a Goya drawing on the next. There’s a page of Medusa as the Mona Lisa that feels like the book’s cri de coeur: Why shouldn’t beauty and monstrosity peacefully coexist within the same subject?

This is not merely an artistic problem. Karen’s beloved brother, Deeze, is devoted and protective, but he’s also brutally violent. And as Karen tentatively gets more comfortable being gay, she learns that one of her neighbors, Anka, a Holocaust survivor, has been murdered — a fact made all the more tragic because of the terrible things she did to survive.

Ferris doesn’t tie up all these plot threads; she revels in the contradictions rather than resolving them. A prequel, “Records of the Damned,” is reportedly already in the works, and somehow my anticipation for the next volume is already exactly the right kind of pleasant agony.

Last year when the artist Martin Simmonds was at New York Comic Con, he let curious passers-by flip through a beautiful portfolio of pages he had for sale. The most striking would become leaves for UNIVERSAL MONSTERS: DRACULA (Image/Skybound, 120 pp., $24.99) , drawn, painted and collaged by Simmonds and written by his frequent collaborator James Tynion IV. Those pages, with lace glued to them and gutters drawn with what looked like correction tape, are featured in this condensed “Dracula” story, a lush volume that plays up Mina Harker’s attraction to the Transylvanian count.

Simmonds and Tynion have produced less an adaptation of the 1931 Universal Studios film, as the cover suggests, than a tone poem on its themes, which is all to the good. The script is spare and the images are generous and baroque; often, they sweep across pages and beyond borders, and Dracula himself gains a dreamlike quality. Little wonder that their Mina is so thoroughly seduced.

Despite a charming visual style that looks like a 1990s Cartoon Network offering and a cover that promises “six twisted tales of adorable horror,” Jay Stephens’s DWELLINGS (Oni Press, 272 pp., $34.99) is both a single, rewardingly complicated narrative and decidedly not for kids. The story concerns a little Canadian town called Elwich, populated by an encyclopedic variety of scary-story protagonists: There’s the family on the lam from the mob, the woman whose puppet talks to her, and a demonic possession.

The characters are simple and their demises are satisfyingly horrible, a bit like especially gory episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” but that is only the plot. The icing is as much fun as the cake here: Each issue begins with an “advertisement” hawking cheap toys and magic tricks to kids, but the descriptive text is both funny (Existentialism, item No. 3306, is only $1.98) and very worrying. It’s the sort of thing you can enjoy once, and then resolve not to read again because it was too disturbing and then immediately pick back up.

The boom in reprinting classic newspaper comics somehow missed Ernie Bushmiller’s astounding “Nancy,” a strip that manages to reduce much of what makes comics work to its barest essence. (And yes, monsters dwell here as well.) It does this by making you laugh, and the editor Denis Kitchen has filled NANCY & SLUGGO’S GUIDE TO LIFE (New York Review Comics, 148 pp., $24.95) with many of Bushmiller’s best gags.

Bushmiller drew the strip for 44 years, and, unlike with Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” or Frank King’s “Gasoline Alley,” there was no deep psychology or narrative engine, so “Nancy” occasionally repeated itself. Here, Kitchen doles out little bits of Bushmiller’s unchanging but inarguable genius with scientific precision. He’s separated the book into three themes: Money, Food and Sleep, with the last being the strangest and most fun. (It is also probably the least funny, but who cares?)

It’s a showcase for Bushmiller’s prodigious drawing skills, which he played down his whole career. One terrific strip has Nancy being swatted by a giant mosquito; another has ghouls, ghosts and devils chasing her through her dreams and inspiring her to open a haunted house. All of them, through that peculiar Bushmiller magic, take longer to describe than they do to read and enjoy.