Ancient & Medieval Literature, Poetry - Literary Criticism, Gay & Lesbian Studies, General & Miscellaneous Literary Criticism

Sappho Companion

Name: Sappho Companion
Author: Margaret Reynolds
ISBN: 9780312295103

by Margaret Reynolds

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Overview

Born around 630 BC on the Greek Island of Lesbos, Sappho is now regarded as the greatest lyrical poet of Greece. Her work survives only in fragments, yet her influence extends throughout Western literature, fuelled by the speculations and romances which have gathered around her name, her story, her sexuality. The Sappho Companion brings together many different kinds of work, ranging from blue-stocking appreciations to juicy fantasies. We see her image change, recreated in Ovid's poetry and Boccaccio's tales, in translations by Pope, Rossetti and Swinburne, Baudelaire, and H.D., in the modern versions of Eavan Boland, Carol Rumens, and Jeanette Winterson. Artists, too, have felt Sappho's power, and the, Companion contains a rich variety of illustrations: classical statues and pre-Raphaelite paintings, Roman mosaics, and Romantic pornography.

Synopsis

Salon.com

The book is like a plate assembled at a vast literary buffet- a dab of this,a morsel of that,the sweet,the salty,the delectable,the piquant.

About the Author, Margaret Reynolds

Margaret Reynolds is a writer, teacher, critic, and broadcaster. Her 1992 edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh won the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

...it's a happy and catholic selection of texts ranging from translations to poems and parts of novels...-Providence Journal

"...lively book...is sure to give a wider view of this primary writer, and provide easier access to a forbiddingly remote land and work." —Publishers Weekly

"...Margaret Reynolds has collected bits and pieces of all these Sapphos into a single, diverting volume. The book is like a plate assembled at a vast literary buffet- a dab of this, a morsel of that, the sweet, the salty, the delectable, the piquant, and, occasionally, the cloying." —Salon.com

"An excellent example of the transformative power of literature and imagination, this volume is recommended." —Library Journal

"chock-full of literary references, illustrations and analysis, this is a must for all fans" —Curve

"Reynolds has really done her homework...manages to take an extraordinary outpouring of scholarship about Sappho and make it come alive." —Women's Review of Books

Salon.com

The book is like a plate assembled at a vast literary buffet- a dab of this,a morsel of that,the sweet,the salty,the delectable,the piquant.

Library Journal

The name Sappho conjures endless stories and images, few of which have any basis in a truth that is impossible to know. She lived in the early sixth century B.C.E. on the island of Lesbos, off the coast of present-day Turkey. Beyond that, little is known of her except the fragments of her surviving poetry. Her reputation has varied according to time and place, from lesbian lover to a woman who jumped off a cliff in hopes of reviving her male lover's ardor; from the "Learned Lady" of the Middle Ages to the "Wanton" of the 18th century; from the "Daughter of de Sade" to the "New Woman" in the 1900s. With accompanying explanation and historical background, Reynolds (coeditor, Victorian Women Poets) gathers works in which the image of Sappho is present. Beginning with 30 fragments of Sappho's own poetry, she continues, in roughly chronological order, to show manifestations of Sappho in excerpts from various literatures. An excellent example of the transformative power of literature and imagination, this volume is recommended for academic and public libraries. Katherine Kaigler-Koenig, Ellis Sch., Pittsburgh Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Reynolds' anthology looks at the ways poetry, fiction, translations, illustrations, and appreciations of many different eras have taken up the story of the ancient Greek poet Sappho. Reynolds (a writer and critic as well as a fellow at Queen Mary and Westfield College, U. of London) sees Sappho undergoing a revival over the past decade, due partly to modern scholarship in ancient Greek and partly to Sappho's enduring appeal across 2,500 years as a popular heroine and also, to some, a demon<-->as famous for being a lesbian as for being a lyrical poet. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)