“In form they are epic poems; but it will perhaps make their content clearer to the modern reader if I describe the Iliad as a tragedy and the {{w|Odyssey}} as a novel. It is in the Iliad that we hear for the first time the authentic voice of the Tragic Muse, while the Odyssey, with its well-knit plot, its psychological interest and its interplay of character, is the true ancestor of the long line of novels that have followed it. And though it is the first, I am not sure that it is not still the best. Let the new reader decide tor himself.”