Psappha: A Novel of Sappho [Paperback]

Peggy Ullman Bell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2000

In this superb page-turner reminiscent of the great Mary renault, Peggy Ullman bell brings tolife one of the most exciting and fascinating figures of the ancent world, Sappho, "the Poetess." A woman who challenged convention, Sappho redefined the role of women in Ancient Greece.

"Psappha" will surely rank as one of the best historical novels of this year. What makes it all the more extraordinary is that this assured work marks Peggy Ullman Bell's debut as a novelist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 185 pages
• Publisher: Upstart Press (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970127499
• ISBN-13: 978-0970127495
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,413,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in the heart of the Great Depression, Peggy Ullman Bell grew up in books, dozens of books, as many as 12 a week the summer she was 15.

Reared in historic Gettysburg and York, Pennsylvania, Ms. Bell longed to know what women were doing while men were fighting battles and making revolutions. The history books did not tell her, and thus her search began.

FIXIN' THINGS, a novel of women at Gettysburg [Writers Club Press, 2002] was Ms. Bell's gift to her mother, Eva May Lightner, deceased.

The expanded second edition, Women at Gettysburg FIXIN' THINGS [Createspace 2010] is also available in Large Print.

***

An accomplished poet in her own right, Ms. Bell became interested in Sappho, The Poetess of Lesbos in the flamboyant Hollywood of the 1960s when everyone around her seemed to know The Lesbian's name, but no one could answer any of Ms. Bell's questions about her life.

Long hours in the library, and an endless supply of books obtained through Interlibrary Loan showed Sappho to have been a woman of genius, so well respected that men quoted from her work three hundred years after her death, and yet what few of her words escaped the destruction of the Library of Alexandria were lost through the philosophical purges of an 11th century Pope.

To Peggy Ullman Bell, the challenge was inescapable. Psappha, as Sappho called herself, was an enigma calling to her across the centuries, begging for resolution. How could a curious Aquarian resist?

With her innate appetite for answers aroused, Ms. Bell spent so much time reading ancient tomes that an editor wrote "Forget your college education and write in English," on an early rejection slip. Quite a compliment considering that she was a High School drop out with a night school diploma at the time. She changed that when, in 1973 she matriculated as a Freshman at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where she became active in Pi Gamma Mu, National Social Science Honor Society. The youngest of her considerable contribution to the Baby Boom was 9 years old.

The first polished draft of her sapphic work was completed during Ms. Bell's senior year at the University of Tulsa, Class of '77, where she was founding president of the Oklahoma Delta Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu.

Published in Y2k, PSAPPHA, a novel of Sappho [Upstart Publishing] sold out and is now out of print.

The "author preferred" edition, SAPPHO SINGS [createspace 2008], having been revised, expanded and augmented with the aid of Trisha Bush, an extremely talented editor is now available in many formats.

When asked why it took so long to get from first draft to publication, Ms. Bell smiled and said, "It takes a long time for an ancient culture to become a worthy tourist attraction."

***

Though originally from scant miles north of the Mason/Dixon Line and educated as a child in Gettysburg, Bell spent a quarter of a century on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and currently resides near her third son in mid-Ohio. "But, I live in cyberspace," she explains in sultry southern tones.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A life of Sappho, January 5, 2001

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Psappha: A Novel of Sappho (Paperback)

There is not much known about the life of Psappha (apparently a more accurate spelling of Sappho). Bell's book imagines Psappha's life, keeping rather true to the facts that are known. Psappha is exiled from her homeland of Lesbos, and ends up in what's now Sicily. She marries a man, becomes lovers with an African warrior queen (Gyla), and has a daughter. After the death of her beloved husband, Psappha begins teaching and becomes the famous Poetess we now know her to be. She and her entourage travel back to Lesbos to continue the teachings, and Psappha lives her life there with her African queen, and in Gyla's absence, becomes lovers with a fisherman. Bell gives us a heroic, yet tragic end for Psappha and her beloved warrior queen, which feels a bit melodramatic. Bell writes beautifully, and several passages in the novel are rather evocative of life in Psappha's time, and yet this style isn't continuous throughout. Overall, this book is a delightful and heartening story of one woman's journey to happiness.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I can think of several adjectives: good is not one of them, December 6, 2000

By 

Bridget Nilssen (Bethlehem, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Psappha: A Novel of Sappho (Paperback)

Some adjectives that do come to mind: melodramatic, torrid, anachronistic, unbelievable. After the rave reviews below, I expected something a whole lot better than what this turned out to be. Frankly, it was hard to finish. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Sappho as poet "has the power of standing aloof and critically judging her own ecstasies and pains; but her emotions lose nothing of their force by being recollected in comparative tranquillity" -- but don't look for that kind of emotional self-control here. As a lesbian, I'd have been delighted to find a good historical novel about Sappho that didn't try to "straighten her out," but I'm unwilling to opt for one that depicts her as a circa 600 BC lesbian Harlequin romance heroine. The other characters are just as poorly drawn. I'm very disappointed.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At Long Last, a Real Psappha........, October 23, 2000

By 

Karen Ruhloff (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Psappha: A Novel of Sappho (Paperback)

Finally! I didn't need to dredge through innuendos, fragments and 'assumed knowledge' about the great poetess! Ms. Bell has given us all a very real and warm Woman to lend deeper meaning to Psappha's history. The historical and social detailing that obviously went into this book are truly helpful to those of us wanting a setting to try and understand the emotional and sensual growing pains of an artist so central to Art history and Womens' history in particular. Thanks to Ms. Bell, we now have it.