Madeline Miller
2 books analyzed
Biography
Madeline Miller (born 1978) studied Classics at Brown University and has a master's degree in the field. She taught Latin and Greek for years before her first novel, The Song of Achilles (2011), won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Circe (2018) became an even larger commercial success, spending years on the New York Times bestseller list. Miller has described her relationship to the source material as one of love, not expertise — she came to these stories as a reader who was moved by them, and her retellings are driven by the questions the originals didn't ask: what were these peripheral women actually experiencing?
Madeline Miller at a glance
Works
Circe
2018 · 393 pages · ★★☆☆☆ Moderate
The 'witch' of The Odyssey finally speaks — and her story turns out to be about what it costs to become yourself.
The Song of Achilles
2011 · 378 pages · ★★☆☆☆ Moderate
Homer's Iliad retold through the eyes of the boy who loved Achilles — and paid everything for it.
Diction Across Works
lyrical-intimate
intimate-lyrical