The Iliad of Homer
Translated into Blank Verse
J. C. Wright
London 1865

REVIEW COMMENT

Wright published his translation in installments; the first three in 1859, 1861, 1864, and the last soon after the publication of Lord Derby’s popular version (also in blank verse). As one sympathetic (but rather patronising) reviewer noted:

. . . [Mr. Wright] alludes rather plaintively to the “very adverse circumstances” under which this final portion makes its appearance. “Ipse facit versus [he himself makes verses],” as Juvenal said of the Roman patrician, we can fancy Mr. Wright exclaiming, when he saw Lord Derby’s translation in the market, whilst a good many critics supplied the rest of the verse, “atque uni cedit Homero [and yields to Homer alone].” However, he may be comforted; his poem will on the whole bear comparison with the noble lord’s. . . . we are clearly of opinion that men of taste may differ as to the respective merits of the various renderings, and we should imagine that Mr. Wright will be quite satisfied with a much smaller acknowledgment of his labour and polish than was awarded his eminent rival. (The Spectator, Volume 39, 1866)

To judge from the few references to Wright’s translation on the Internet and the apparent absence of any republication in print or electronically, posterity seems to have consigned his Homer to virtual oblivion.

[List of Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey]