- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Vintage (4 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099738619
- ISBN-13: 978-0099738619
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 3.2 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 930,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Sappho Companion
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
What we know about Sappho would fit on a Greek stamp. She was born and lived on the island of Lesbos sometime in the late seventh and early sixth century BC. Her poetry survives only in fragments. But somehow she lives on, "re-incarnated, revived, resuscitated, recalled, remembered, re-invented" across the last two and a half millennia as "lesbian, mother, poet, artist, lover, suicide, warning, icon". In The Sappho Companion, Victorian literature specialist Margaret Reynolds guides us through her changing fortunes and the morphology of her poetic forms.
Nothing should be taken for granted about Sappho. Even her name--"pronounced by locals as the spitting, popping "Ppppsappoppo"--has been "eased off" for international consumption. In medieval times, Sappho is "The Learned Lady", but for the Victorians she was a "daughter of de Sade". For us sex-obsessed 21st century consumers, of course, Sappho is the archetypal lesbian--"but don't be so sure: "Sappho may or may not have been a lesbian. But she certainly was a Lesbian". As befits a writer known for fragments, Sappho's Companion is a patchwork of fragments, from her own verse through to her appropriations in the 1990s (by Eavan Boland and Jeannette Winterson among others).
Those expecting Sappho to elicit a jolly trot through a familiar litany of women writers might be shocked by the number of Sapphic men Reynolds has unearthed: from Thomas More to Tony Harrison. Each section is trailed by a learned and witty introduction by Reynolds, who somehow maintains wide-ranging erudition alongside easy accessibility. Full of the unexpected, The Sappho Companion is an entertaining and endlessly fascinating read.--Alan Stewart --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
For two and a half thousand years, poets and readers have been inspired by the writing of Sappho, and the myths that surround her
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A disappointing anthology. Reynolds never shows any real interest in Sappho's poetry. Nor does she quote any intelligent literary criticism by other writers. The book is of interest as literary history rather than as literature. It gives us an overview of how Sappho has been seen during the last two and a half thousand years, but much of the material selected is sadly banal.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
NOT yawn!
12 Feb 2003
Format:Paperback
I don't know what the previous reviewer is talking about; I loved this book. Granted, I am no scholar of Sappho. Although I have read various translations of her poetry in the past, I do not read Greek and cannot comment upon whether Reynolds' research is accurate. However, given her amazing previous work (editing Aurora Leigh, the Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories, etc.) I am inclined to trust her (and I like her writing style anyway).
For me, this book was the perfect introduction to Sappho. It includes historical background followed by many of Sappho's fragments in a variety of translations. But that's just the beginning: Reynolds goes on to show how Sappho has been imagined/created by literature up to the present day. She anthologizes a variety of poems, plays, and fictions inspired by Sappho. It is amazing to see how, though so little of her writing survived, she has remained a titaness in our imaginations. Each literary generation has reinvented and recreated her. Reading Jeanette Winterson's amazing story "The Poetics of Sex" (narrated by a modern-day Sappho) fills me with hope and joy at the potential for lesbian creativity that is Sappho's legacy. I also appreciated the inclusion of works of art depicting Sappho through the ages. Although they are in black and white, they are an exquisite visual touch to this beautiful volume (the cover art is amazing as well).
I urge you not to judge this book by one bad review. It is a book to be perused at leisure, to leaf through in times of anxious sorrow and contemplative joy. Buy or borrow a copy and judge it for yourself.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
All About Sappho
10 April 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you're a Sappho fan, you get everything in this book: her poems and fragments in the original Greek, followed by renderings by poets from Catullus and Ovid onward; her history, as much as is known; commentary on her by writers through the ages; and others' poems based on her work. The extant body of Sappho's work is so slender that the heart aches for what was lost; but these musings, analyses, and celebrations down through the ages help round out our image of her.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
"Sappho" the Ten's Muse
5 July 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Are you wondering about the poet Sappho" the poet the Greek & Roman people revered and respected for her beautiful poetry? Read this book, it unlocks the doors on the life & beauty of the talented "Sappho" a wonder with words that can touch or pierce your heart.
Blessings,
Donna Swindells
Blessings,
Donna Swindells
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
