Having worked for the Bombay branch of Oxford University Press, Rieu joined the publishers Methuen in London in 1923, where he was managing director from 1933 to 1936, and then academic and literary adviser.
According to his son, "[h]is vision was to make available to the ordinary reader, in good modern English, the great classics of every language.
By the time Rieu retired as general editor of the Penguin Classics series, he had overseen the publication of about 160 volumes.
He assiduously tracked down all the scholars and translators he wanted for each, creating a series that combined sound scholarship with readability, and accessibility through authoritative introductions and notes.
The genial and witty Rieu was a friend and editorial mentor of the science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon.
[8] Rieu wrote the short story "Pudding Law: A Nightmare", included in The Great Book for Girls, published by Oxford University Press.
[9] Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh evoked the translations' crisp and readable character in a poem "On Looking into E. V. Rieu's Homer": English poet Stevie Smith was moved by Rieu's translation of the Gospel of Mark to write her poem "The Airy Christ", for which she credited him in her brief introduction.