![]() ![]() ![]() The book proved excellent on all three counts.ĭespite its subtitle, Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad tells the story of the whole Trojan War. I picked up Black Ships Before Troy for three reasons: first, my lifelong love of the story of the Trojan War and my constant search for good ways to introduce my kids to these stories second, the fact that it was written by Rosemary Sutcliff, author of much classic children’s historical literature, like her novel The Eagle of the Ninth and third-and decisively-the illustrations by Alan Lee, one of the great illustrators of Tolkien. At last my daughter, who had watched me intently throughout this chapter, said, “I’ve never seen a daddy cry before.” And then, “That was weird.” It was bedtime, and I had just read to my six-year-old daughter and four-year old son about the long-fated duel of Achilles and Hector, of Hector’s death, his father King Priam’s pitiful trip into the night to beg for his son’s body, of the weeping of Troy’s women as they washed and dressed the body for the pyre, and the funeral rites performed for the dead prince. ![]() One night last week I closed our copy of Black Ships Before Troy and set it aside. ![]()
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